"Why do Christian Scientists place such emphasis on increasing their understanding of God when Jesus said that we must receive the kingdom of heaven as children ^{See Mark 10:15 .} if we are to enter it?"

This question from a college friend challenged a Christian Science Sunday School student who shared his friend's yearning to obey the teachings of the Master.

Christ Jesus was certainly talking about the moral and spiritual qualities that characterize the child, such as purity and innocence. But what about spiritual understanding? Was he implying that our understanding should remain at the child level? Surely not, because he also said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." ^{John 8:32.}

The truth of man, revealed in the Bible and in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, is that he is the image and likeness of God—spiritual, beautiful, holy, and complete. Matter is not a factor in the makeup of man. Christ Jesus perceived these liberating truths, and healing resulted. If his followers are to expect the same result, an understanding of the Master's teachings and demonstrations is required.

Knowing that God's nature is unlimited good and that man is His likeness, Jesus did not expect his followers' understanding of God to remain limited. When he told them to become as little children, he was actually telling them how to increase their spiritual understanding.

To become as little children requires some effort on our part. Mrs. Eddy, who founded the Christian Science movement, including the Christian Science Sunday School, understood the relation of childlike thought to spiritual progress. She writes: "Jesus loved little children because of their freedom from wrong and their receptiveness of right. While age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth." ^{Science and Health, p. 236.} Developing the childlike qualities of receptivity, willingness, and obedience opens the way for greater comprehension, which eliminates fear and doubt—so foreign to the pure thought. This in turn confers progressive freedom from discord.

Picture a little one skipping happily along hand in hand with his father and mother. He is not anxiously questioning their ability to protect him nor doubting their intention to lead him safely. He is not fearfully wondering if they know where they are going and suspecting there may be a better way to go. The joy on his face does not mask a worried, uncertain feeling. He trusts his parents. Why? Because he knows them. He would not be so willing to trust a stranger.

The follower of Christ can strive to know his loving Father-Mother God so well that fear and doubt cannot intrude to cast a shadow on his trust in Him. Trust based on understanding is not naivete but a protection.

As a child gradually advances beyond the sheltered freedom of early years into adult responsibility, increasing understanding is requisite to protect youthful innocence. Worldly pursuits crowd and elbow, and peer pressure is felt. But the individual planted firmly in the comprehension of God's law, including the Ten Commandments, is equipped to cope. To the degree that he understands his true identity as God's child, perpetually governed by divine law, he is able to withstand the temptation to break this law. Spiritual maturity is his sure defense. Maturing in the highest sense does not mean outgrowing innocent characteristics. Instead it brings a willingness to express them, even in the face of opposition or ridicule, and this in turn brings more enlightenment.

Science and Health states: "Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear,—this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress." ^{Ibid., pp. 323–324.} Note the qualities of thought shining through these words: willingness, receptivity, gladness, purity! The childlike disposition is not stagnant, self-satisfied, nor limited, but ever "receptive of the advanced idea."

The advanced idea of God and of man created in His likeness, spiritual and immortal without a single element of materiality, is the basis of Christ Jesus' teachings and works, and the foundation of Christian Science practice. To receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child means to receive Christly teachings with childlike receptivity. It means to learn eagerly about God and His man, annulling ignorance. It means to drop the falsities of sophistry, guile, and opinionatedness, which we do by understanding our native truthfulness and sincerity. It means to put into daily practice with the obedience of a child whatever understanding of God and His Christ we have, and to let the light of the child's love shine so brightly in our disposition that the darkness of gloom and doom, discouragement and depression, disappears.

The child naturally accepts good; the childlike thought naturally accepts health and harmony. And such childlikeness, based firmly on spiritual understanding, is fertile ground for healing others and being healed oneself.

Even centuries before Jesus, the place of childlikeness in the onward march of spiritual progress had been recognized by the prophet Isaiah. Through greatly advanced spiritual understanding he envisioned the coming to earth of the perfect harmony of the heavenly kingdom and wrote these stirring words: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." ^{Isa. 11:6.}

Let us cherish the child in ourselves and others, and humbly pray to express more of it every day.