Children don’t know

Jesus stated that the kingdom of Heaven belongs to children. Adults don’t get it, literally.

Jean Piaget was a renowned child psychologist who told a story about a study of how children process information at differing ages. He classified them as “preop,” the stage prior to being able to do mental operations; “conop,” the stage where only concrete thinking occurs; and “formop,” the stage where the child is able to think abstractly and complete formal mental operations.

Each child is given the exact same assignment where they are presented with a number of beakers with clear liquids. Three of these clear liquids when combined together would create a yellow liquid. The problem the children were to solve was to determine which of the three liquids produced the end result.

The “preop” child will mix a few of the liquids and then give up. The “conop” child will mix three liquids at a time, varying the three liquids throughout the process until the result is arrived or gets tired and gives up. The “formop” child will formulate a plan varying the liquids before actually beginning with a vague plan of how to conduct the assignment.

Which of these three children does the Kingdom of Heaven belong to? Which of these three categories do you fit in? That last one is kind of a loaded question. You’re possibly of an age where you don’t think a description of child development applies to you having graduated long ago from this stage in life. However, these descriptions are not age specific. They apply to the development all of us move through when confronted with a new idea, paradigm, or architype in life.

You ever talked to someone who glazed over when you began expounding your latest revelation? Preop meets formop. You ever listened to sermon that you felt so far beneath where you were at even though everyone else eagerly lapped up the words like a dog at a water bowl on a hot summer day? Preop meets formop. You ever scratch your head after listening to a teacher and wonder what did they mean from all that they said? Preop meets formop.

So where are you as a child of the kingdom of Heaven? Where is the person you listen to every week for guidance in this kingdom? Where are your friends, family, even your children?

Could it be possible that the Law is preop material in the kingdom while grace is formop material? What if the cross is conop while resurrection is formop? What if Love is really a formop matter that we’ve been treating as a preop issue? What if everything that you’ve spent the last twenty to thirty years learning came from people who never advanced beyond preop? What if faith was preop while grace is formop?

Adults don’t get the kingdom simply because the kingdom is a learning process you never graduate from. It is the ultimate continuing education program.