Yesterday, we learned of some beautiful traits of children that made Jesus liken the
Kingdom of God to them. Their innocence, authenticity, faith and lots more are pointers
to how life in the Kingdom is designed to be. We ended our meditation stressing the
need for balance – the need to know when to act as children and when to put on the
maturity of an adult. There is an aspect of children that must be avoided; that is fear.
Children are generally fearful. For the most part, the fear is baseless. I remember an
incident some years ago about a young child and his mother. The sprawling departure
lounge of the airport could not contain this three-year-old boy. He ran everywhere,
making friends with people of various colours and creeds. When his young mother could
not contain his exuberance she let him be. And what a field day he had! Shortly after,
hell was literally let loose when it was time to board. The little boy detested the idea of
being hoarded into that “flying box”. In the aircraft, he wept and screamed. He could not
as much as look through the window to the sky. Continuously he urged his mother to
“let us go”. He was simply afraid of his new environment.

“An adult who is paralyzed by fear is only demonstrating spiritual immaturity.”

All will probably go well until we let in fear by omission, commission, or ignorance. That
was the summary of that little boy’s story. As I watched the innocent boy cry to
exhaustion, I figured out the word of our passage: fear has torment. Fear can be a
killjoy. Fear can stop us short of our goal. Peter almost did not make it to Jesus because
of his fear of the wind and the storm. An adult who is paralyzed by fear is only
demonstrating spiritual immaturity. Mature people know how to hand their issues over to
God and rest.