like a little child

I just had a thought.

I was thinking about the vocal nature of domestic cats, how in their feral state they only vocalize while fighting and mating, and an article I read that suggested that domestic cats make so much noise because people do, and cats try to communicate with us by "talking" as we "talk."

That thought led to another article I read stating that domestic cats, in the company of humans, basically remain in a state of arrested kittenhood their whole lives, which is what allows them to demonstrate affection, "talk," and seek the company of others. I have often thought that God's redemption of humanity does for us what human beings do for domestic cats -- frees us to be everything we can possibly be. Adult feral cats are completely solitary, vicious, suspicious and antisocial; the same could be said of adult humans left to their own devices. But cats in a state of permanent kittenhood are joyful, relaxed, playful, demanding and unafraid to demand, loving and unafraid to love, and happy.

And today I wondered if that's what it means to "receive the kingdom of God like a little child." To live in the freedom of absolute need, absolute trust, and absolute affection. To be unworried about the disparity between the giver and the receiver. To remain, day to day, in the pure abandonment of knowing that all needs are and will be cared for, and to be free to play in the simplicity of gladness. To give the only thing there is to give to the giver, which is unrestrained love -- as when a little child runs up to the father and throws her arms around his knees, flinging her head back to look up at him and smile. I was like that, once. It never bothered me that I couldn't earn my parents' provision or love or affection or kindness; that's what they were supposed to do, and I took it completely for granted, and yet I loved them as completely as I took them for granted, and both of those things formed the bedrock of my freedom and my joy in being, which I never had to think about, because it almost always was.

The simplicity of being. Extended childhood in its best sense. Maybe that's faith like a child.