He’s not on sticks anymore.

“Hey friend, do you know who Jesus is?” I asked.

“Oh yes, He’s on sticks,” she replied.

She said it so matter-of-factly, I couldn’t help but smile. Her bright blue eyes sparkled as she held up her tiny hands, placing her fingers together to form a cross. When I asked if she wanted to hear the rest of the story, she eagerly nodded.

“Did you know He’s not on the sticks anymore?”

Her mom had shared with me that her daughter had been having night terrors and “seeing monsters” during the day that would send her into fits of fear and panic and keep her awake.

She also had an imaginary friend her mom was concerned about. Their landlord had been taking her to Sunday school and talking with her about Jesus when she babysat. Although her mom wasn’t really “into religion like that,” she admitted she knew her daughter needed some kind of spiritual help. So, I did my best to share the Gospel in a way a four-year-old might understand.

“Well,” I began, “Jesus died on the cross for you, or uh - the sticks - so that you could be with God forever and have the Holy Spirit with you! Jesus didn’t stay dead on the sticks though. He lives in heaven with God now, but He sent His Holy Spirit to be with you here on earth! He can help you with the monsters your mom was telling me about. Do you believe that He died on the cross for your sins? Do you want Jesus to be your friend?”

Her eyes lit up as she nodded eagerly.

“Yes, Jesus, come be my friend!”

I wasn’t expecting her to be so interested. Did she even understand what I was saying? She seemed so little. I remembered back to when I was her age and saw Jesus in a dream for the first time. I dreamed that he was standing with the angels, having a potluck in my grandma’s basement. They all cheered when my grandpa got up from his sick bed in the dream and went downstairs to meet them. I woke the next morning to the news that my grandpa passed away in his sleep that night. If I could encounter the love of God at four, why should I doubt that she could too? What happened next would forever change my life.

“Ms. Becca, why’s Jesus not here yet?”

Before I could even conjure up a response, she took off down the hall.

“Oh! There He is!!!”

I sat there on the floor for a minute trying to process what had just happened before following her to her room.

A thick, weighty presence of the Holy Spirit filled the little girl’s bedroom. She stood there holding up her stuffed animal in mid air.

“Why isn’t He taking it?” I mustered up a quick response. “Because it’s yours.”

She simply said, “Oh.” and kept on playing in her toy kitchen. I couldn’t deny the presence of God in the room. I could feel His peace washing over the atmosphere, dismantling any evil tormenting spirits that had come to plague this little girl.

“Hey friend, lets pray and ask Jesus to tell us a secret, okay?”

She sat down her toy and closed her eyes and we asked Him to speak to us. In typical four year old fashion, she jumped back into playing almost immediately after we were done praying. My curiosity had gotten the best of me by this point and I wasn’t going to let it go. She was halfway under her bed when I tried to redirect her back to the conversation.

“Hey, I thought we were going to ask Jesus to tell us a secret?”

She wiggled her feet out from under the bed, with both hands tightly gripping a stuffed toy.

“Jesus did tell me a secret! He told me where my lost toy was! See?!”

I told her how much Jesus loves her and that He will never leave her, even if she couldn’t see Him - but it seemed that she was seeing Him. She gazed up at the same spot where she was holding up her toy when I first walked in the room. Her hands were folded against her chest in adoration. The best way I can describe it is that her eyes filled up with pure love as she continued to gaze at the center of her room in amazement.

“He is SO sweet.”

She said it as if she was a beautiful princess gazing into the eyes of her prince charming, swept off her feet by the power of His love. I was moved and humbled. This little girl was having a deep encounter with the love of God. The simplicity of watching her face as she stood there in awe over His love for her absolutely wrecked me. It was a moment that convicted me and challenged me in the best of ways. It revealed how far I’d strayed from having a child-like faith, allowing the power of His love to simply be enough for me.

And then He said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” -Matthew 18:3

Not long after that, their family moved away and her mom and I lost touch. It was a few years after that when her mom was pregnant with her second daughter that we reconnected over a phone call. She told me that her daughter still talked about Jesus on a regular basis.

So how about you? When was the last time you allowed childlike wonder and faith to fill your heart as you gazed into the eyes of your beloved? Do you have faith that He sees you, knows you and can’t wait to spend time with you and reveal Himself to you? Take a moment to invite Holy Spirit to renew childlike wonder and faith in your heart today.

Would you like to deepen your relationship with the Lord? Check out my guided journal, Knowing I Am: A Study on the I Am Statements of God by clicking the link below.

Thanks for reading!