As our family toured the Big Treehouse near Marshalltown, Iowa, I felt transported back in time. Suddenly I was a kid again. I felt like a 10 year-old boy ready to explore, climb, run, imagine and discover. My eyes were at least as big as my sons’ as we all stared mouths agape at the 12-level masterpiece in an Midwestern backyard. This was more than a field of dreams, it was a tree of dreams!

Big Treehouse

We all took turns using the homemade pulley system with a bucket on the end of the rope. I imagined sending a secret message up the the top floor via this intricate piece of technological wonder! We nearly teetered over with delight at the fridge, microwave and television set that help bring modern conveniences to this palace of boyhood dreams.

We laughed with delight at the outhouse with a special surprise in it (I won’t tell you what the surprise is so you can be surprised too if you ever visit!). I tried my hand at a few of the mind-benders that are required to pass into this exclusive clubhouse. After all, this was sort of like touring my dream house. I was magically brought back to watching Swiss Family Robinson as a kid and wishing I too could live in a treehouse someday!
After this great tour we drove onto another site, and as we drove I had time to reflect on my childlike delight in the Big Treehouse. I began to think of the difference between being childlike and being childish. The Bible talks a bit about both. Mark 10:15 talks of a childlike faith when Jesus said - “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Later though Paul writes “When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things,” in I Corinthians 13:11.

Being childlike means being filled with wonder, with an uncomplicated love of life and others, full of hope and imagination and ready to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Childishness is being selfish, unrepentant, inconsiderate and irresponsible. It is funny and sad at the same that as a children’s pastor for so many years, I observed adults, even pastors, get these two confused!! They have lost the wonder and imagination of life and have adopted a gilded view towards simple things like a treehouse or a pond or a campfire. Yet they remain childish by being irresponsible and pay no real attention to anyone else around them.

Children and Youth Pastors especially can fall into this trap. We can be tempted to think that by being immature we relate better to kids and youth and we look like fools even to the kids we are trying to reach. Instead of being immature, be childlike. Use the imagination that God gave us and time can steal. See the wonder in everyday life. Believe in the adventure that life has to offer when we follow God!