On Childlike Faith
A truth bomb from Evie compliments of Nutella toast.
Evie shared something profound this morning at breakfast, and I couldn’t keep it to myself. This morning, I needed the girls to make their breakfast. I try to make chicken sausages every morning to get our protein in, alongside eggs, oatmeal, or overnight oats, but I was out of time after some last-minute homework help, and I needed to get ready and out the door for work. So, this is how Evie landed on Nutella toast for breakfast. I can’t blame her; I love Nutella, too.
Just as I walked into the kitchen and noticed the Nutella toast, Evie carefully arranged the toast on her orange plastic plate and announced:
“If I was selling bread, I’d place the bread just like this on one of our white china plates with the silver edges. It’d be so pretty.”
I looked at the toast arranged “just so” on the plate and smiled wide.
I said, “Evie, you could be in advertising someday. You have an eye for style for something as simple as bread.”
Evie shot back immediately, seemingly offended. “Hey, it’s not my fault! God gave me that idea!”
Trying to reassure her that what I said was a compliment, not a criticism, I explained, “I know he did! I’m just calling it out and telling you that I see your artistic nature.”
This is where Evie drops some wisdom. Completely matter-of-fact and confident, without any prompting, Evie explained:
“It works like this: it’s like a little message God puts in my head. I struggle to open it, but when I finally open it, I share it!”
And that is the gospel according to one Evie Schroeder.
For the longest time, I would have a thought about something seemingly mundane and ordinary, and I’d secretly wonder if it was a prompting from the Spirit or if it was just a random thought. After I had sufficiently overthought the thought, I typically concluded that it was probably just a thought, not the Holy Spirit, because why would the Holy Spirit tell me something so small and seemingly insignificant, such as how to style toast?
In this single interaction, Evie described her download with God with such trust and humility it nearly took my breath away. It’s taken me nearly 40 years to trust the “still small voice,” yet here she is at age 9, describing that voice with clarity and confidence. She named the creativity that flowed through her and did not hesitate to attribute it to God. This immediately brought to mind something Jesus himself said, as quoted in Matthew 18:3: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Evie didn’t realize her vulnerability in revealing this interaction with God. Being young, she hasn’t faced the world’s harshness and criticism yet. I’m sure it’s coming. In the meantime, I’ll keep praying for a childlike faith inspired by Nutella toast on this typical Thursday morning.