My wife and I recently had our third child. We named her Sophia after the Greek word for Wisdom. She is a tiebreaker child. (Boys are down 2-1). She is our best sleeper. And she is beloved by her older siblings (not to mention her parents). However, Sophia’s most distinguishing characteristic is her smile.
When Sophia makes eye contact with someone, her go to move is to scrunch up her nose, open her mouth wide, and dazzle them with an almost toothless grin. This goes for nearly all people that she encounters (and she is not just passing gas as some suggest). She genuinely loves to smile. If she is in a particularly happy mood, she may start to babble or grunt at you in conversation format, waiting for you to smile and respond back. She is perfectly content sitting on her playmat where she will smile at anyone who will play with her or even at herself in the little mirror suspended above her.
When I think about it, it should not be so surprising that Sophia is such a happy child. She has every need provided for her. The Lord has blessed her with good health. He has also blessed her with a family that joyfully feeds her, holds her, plays with her, and changes her diapers. She wants nothing and is perfectly content.
The joy and peace that Sophia has is the life that Jesus promises us. He calls for us to have the faith of a child. What does a child do? As long as their parents are responsible and have the means to provide, they trust that their parents are always going to take care of them. Sophia never wonders if she is going to have the things she needs to live, it is only a matter of when she gets them. God is our Father who has all the means necessary to bestow on His children what they need and more, and He does that for all of His children.
Why then does it seem like our lives become hectic, chaotic, full of pain, and suffering, and we can doubt that God is really providing for us? More often than not, it is because we grasp after things that we do not need. In the style of Adam and Eve we grasp after things that delight our eyes rather than staying humble like a little child and waiting on the Lord to give us what we need. Jesus, even though He was God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped at. He is the ultimate example of what it means to have childlike faith in the Father. He only did the will of the Father and trusted that His Father would provide for Him. Even through pain and suffering, God the Father provided for Jesus. He promises to do the same for us who live in the life of His Son.
The key to peace and joy is not by building our life around our personal wants and desires. In American society today, that is something we can easily do. We have the tendency of deceiving ourselves that wants and are actually needs. But if we take on the humility of Jesus and live a life that is only for the Kingdom of God, not only will our needs be provided, but He will shower us with blessings that we couldn’t have imagined.
At this moment in her life, Sophia does not know how to grasp after the things she wants. She only knows her needs and we provide them by the grace of God. Thus, that little smile is the brightest light in our house. It has added to already joyful days and lessened tension on not so joyful days. It has been the source of excitement for siblings and a source of content for her parents. In the same way Jesus is the Light of the World, shining bright with the peace, joy, and love of His Father because He trusted Him fully. Jesus and Sophia are calling all of us to do the same with our lives, for one day in heaven, we will enter into an eternity of God providing for us.
