Claire Grace has been talking a lot about God lately. At age four, she seems to be able to effectively grasp what it means to have Jesus “in your heart.” She also likes to talk about how much God loves her and mommy and daddy and everybody. She usually gets a look of wonderment on her face with that last category – how could he love everybody? I’m not sure, but I do know this: dwelling on that one revelation keeps me happy for days on end.
I was fairly certain CG understood the metaphorical reference of Jesus in her heart. After all she’s a genius, right? – just like your kid is to you. Or, at least, it seemed like she did until Beth took her to a Christmas play at a local church last year. One of the youth members was dressed up as a ”grown up” Jesus. CG turned to Beth and said, “Look mom – Jesus jumped out of our hearts and now he’s on stage!” Okay…so maybe she didn’t get the whole metaphor thing. Then I got to thinking that most people probably don’t understand the implications of that phrase either. So here it is…
The Hebrew word for heart (lev, pronounced with a long e) doesn’t necessarily mean an organ in the body. It stood for the center of a person where all emotion, will, desire, and intention originates. In essence, lev means the “life seat” of a person. The main controls that set all else in order. So when a child prays “Jesus, come into my heart,” they are actually saying, “Jesus, come and occupy the life seat of all present and future decisions, intentions, and motives.” Now, that’s a little different than tallying “professions of faith” in a church bulletin, don’t you think?
The first thing that strikes me about that idea is that is affects the entire person. From a Hebraic perspective God intended to save the whole man, not just his spirit that floats to heaven one day. That’s why the Hebrews had no real doctrine of the afterworld. They solely concentrated on this life. They understood “heart” decisions as present life decisions. Second, the level of commitment within this little phrase is far beyond what most Christians are comfortable with. Third, Paul reflects that same idea when talking about being filled with the spirit and what that means exactly. I already blogged about that here. Finally, the implications of that phrase make me realize that Christianity, though it certainly has a beginning point at conversion, is more about growing into maturity as a life quest – a slow process of regeneration and sanctification.
So, there you go. As with any Christian parent, my goal is to help CG understand the implications of what she is saying when she says, “Jesus lives in my heart.” Come to think of it, it’s my personal goal for my walk with the Lord as well…
