Today’s post at Whiskey River hits at the core of contentment, I think:

Childhood is full of mystery and promise, and perhaps the life fear comes when all the mysteries are laid open, when what we thought we wanted is attained. It is just at the moment of seeming fulfillment that we sense irrevocable betrayal, like a great wave rising silently behind us. Confronted by the uncouth specter of old age, disease, and death, we are thrown back upon the present, on this moment, here, right now, for that is all there is. And surely this is the paradise of children, that they are at rest in the present, like frogs or rabbits.
–Peter Matthiessen

This observation reminded me of another instance of extolling the spiritual virtue of children:

Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.
(Matthew 19:13-15)

Jesus’ statement above is often interpreted to mean that we should have “faith like a child”, implying that the virtue of children is their simplicity and ease of belief. Yet the more I read the gospel of Matthew, the more I become convinced that Jesus’ kingdom of heaven has little relevance to the afterlife and more to do with a revolutionary shift in our way of life on earth.

It seems to me that the value Jesus ascribes to little children is not blind faith but a life of contended paradise that only comes from living entirely in the present–an outlook readily apparent if you’ve ever watched children at play. The kingdom of heaven, then, will arrive when we, too, find contentment and rest in the present.