A few weeks ago, I dropped Brody off at the church before I headed to Bible Study. What I like about the childcare they provide is the fact that it’s not just babysitting. They have a dynamic children’s program that is ongoing, every time there are kids that walk through the door.

I went to study, then to lunch afterward with the group, and then on to pick him up. He saw me at the door, and I was greeted with an exuberant “Mimmie!” For good measure, he yanked on his teacher’s pant leg, pointing and saying, “That my Mimmie right there!”

I gathered him up, got his little back pack and art work, and we started our walk to the parking lot, me asking him about his day.

“Did you have a good time in class today, Bubby?”

(Lilli has called him Bubba since she was very small, which has translated to Bubs or Bubby for me. Don’t judge.)

“I DID.”

(For some reason, he kept putting emphasis on the second word. I don’t know why. He’s a toddler.)

“Did you play with your friends?”

“I DID.”

“Do you have a special friend?”

“I DO.”

“What’s their name?”

And without a moment’s hesitation…

“God.”

Ah, the simplicity of the faith of a child.

Would that be your first answer? If I’m being completely honest with myself, it wouldn’t be mine either. Often, I think in the day to day lives of adults, we relegate God to the help-in-a-crisis category. Or maybe the thanks-for-this-or-that category. We think of Him as Creator and Redeemer, but I don’t think it’s natural for us to think of Him as Friend. Our lives seem too complex for that simple truth to rise to the surface.

But for a child? Natural as the air they breathe.

And that’s exactly why we’re supposed to approach faith the way they do, put our hand in His and know, without a moment’s hesitation, the name of our most special friend. After all, He’s told us – straight out – that which even the most complex adult heart wants to hear:

You’ve got a friend in me.

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ~ John 15:13 ESV