So I have had, in the course of my life, lots of encounters with lots of serious people.
I have spent lots of time with grown ups. I have seen them at close range…
which hasn’t much improved my opinion of them.
-Antoine De Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince
The Little Prince, in addition to being a charming and lovable children’s story, contains some scathing commentary of the world of “grown-ups.” The little prince is a traveler from a small asteroid who appears to a pilot stranded in the middle of the Sahara desert and asks him to “draw me a sheep.” The adult response is to become all cranky about what possible utility a drawing of a sheep would have in the middle of the Sahara desert but the insistence and faith of the little prince breaks the cynicism and adulthood of the pilot. The pilot narrates what it means to have a relationship with such a singular individual who is not bound by the same constraints of reason and logic that have trapped him since childhood. What Saint-Exupery means when he describes the world of “serious people” or “grown-ups” is a world that is devoid of imagination, that is based on numbers more than dreams and is no place for true royalty. When Jesus was questioned about who would rank highest in the kingdom of heaven he used a child as an example: “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, your not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in.” (Matthew 18: 2, The Message) It occurs to me that a great tragedy occurs when Christians become too “serious,” about themselves, about what they think they know and don’t know. It makes me cringe when I read about strategies for being the church that involve all sorts of numbers and percentages and statistics, not that those things are bad in their place but I am strengthening in my conviction that church is not their place.
I see clearly an ongoing struggle in Jesus’ ministry to try and get the people to forget their seriousness and learn to stand on faith. What Jesus calls us to is not blind faith, not a faith that ignores or denies facts and numbers, but a faith that is able to see real truth, even if the facts and numbers don’t seem to touch it. The truth of God cannot be proved by mathematical equations or seen with the Hubble telescope. In The Little Prince the narrator feels the stress of the life of faith:
“So if you tell them: ‘The proof of the little prince’s existence is that he was delightful, that he laughed and that he wanted a sheep. When someone wants a sheep, that proves he exists,’ they shrug their shoulders and treat you like a child! But if you tell them, ‘The planet he came from is Asteroid B-612,’ then they’ll be convinced, and they won’t bother you with their questions. That’s the way they are. You must not hold it against them. Children should be very understanding of grown-ups.”
When the seriousness of “grown-ups” pollutes the guileless belief of the children of God we tend to use even our belief as a criteria for getting the upper hand. Paul says, “The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hell-bent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation in makes perfect sense.” (1 Cor. 1:18, The Message) We know through faith that God wanted a sheep, doesn’t that prove He exists? It should and it’s important that we understand that we are the sheep He wants, we are the children He wants to believe in him. We, who are on the way of salvation, should be ultimately understanding of those to whom the desire for a sheep is completely irrelevant to the question of existence.
“Grown-ups” will not understand the message of the Cross because it seems like utter nonsense to the world of cause and effect. God, if he truly became a man, would not allow himself to be executed as a common criminal. For that matter, a God who could create an entire universe would not really care enough about a few scattered sheep (or humans) to want a relationship with them in the first place. But the proof of faith and belief is in that very relationship, which to the outside world seems like “sheer silliness,” or a fable for children. We see Jesus is the king of kings not because he has proven it via an account of his riches and power but because he loved us enough to die for us; it is our relationship with Jesus that matters. The crux of Christian faith is how we respond to Jesus’ request for a sheep; if we have any grace in us whatsoever will be just childlike enough to draw it for him.
