We all have a bucket

I'm convinced that children have a better grasp of theology than almost any adult I know. After all, Jesus did say, ". . . Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 18:3-4)

Children, it would seem, may have the upperhand, spiritually, so when they speak, we probably should listen. Their approach to almost anything in the world is so simple and straightforward. Here's an example of the wisdom of a child.

Almost any time you ask my grandson what he learned at school, he'll say something along the lines of, "Same old thing." But one day, not long ago, he had a new thing to say. His teacher had read something to the class which one of his friends had brought to school. "Everyone in the whole world has a bucket," he told me with the wide-eyed, earnest enthusiasm of a seven-year-old who had just found a way to express a great truth he had always known. There's no telling exactly how the story went originally, but he continued with his interpretation.

"Some people are bucket-dippers, and some people are bucket-fillers. When someone is a bully and they say or do mean things, they're a bucket-dipper, and they're trying to empty someone else's bucket, so they can fill up their own. But they can never fill up their own bucket by being mean; it really just makes their bucket empty. When someone is a bucket-filler, they do nice things, like say hello to the mailman or smile at everyone. When they do that, they're trying to fill up other people's buckets, but they're really filling up their own bucket, too. Being nice is the only way to fill up your bucket."

Wow. How true is that?

Psalm 8:2 says, "From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease." If we all switched to a definition of strength marked by doing the right thing, making choices based on what is good and simple rather than seeking revenge, if we all tried to become bucket-fillers every day, eventually the bucket-dippers would be silenced, because everyone's bucket would be full. And when everyone's bucket is full, there won't be any reason to fight.