I think there’s nothing more beautiful than innocence, and nothing more able to restore innocence than the blood of Jesus Christ when it has been lost.
The beauty of innocence is found in its transparency, its openness. Thus Jesus points to our need to be as open and innocent as a little child.
“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” -Luke 18:17
The Word of God reveals that it is the pure heart that is most able to see, most able to feel, most able to enjoy. This runs totally contrary to the world which tells us that plunging into sin is the way to enjoyment. The perversity of sin is that it hardens the one who practices it, so that the more we partake of sin the more callus and closed our hearts become.
Sin builds walls around our heart so that we cannot see out, and others cannot see in. What a beautiful thing an unwalled heart is!
One of the most wonderful gifts that Jesus Christ has ever given me is the restoration of innocence. With it, every wall came tumbling down. With the walls down, I could feel again! I could live again!! The hard shell around my heart disappeared and I became as a little child. The skin of my heart became as soft as a newborn baby!
And do you know what happened? I began to treasure innocence! I began to notice it, and appreciate it, and be attracted to it. Oh, how I love to see innocence in others!
There are people who I meet who are so open and unguarded because of innocence that I feel as if I could literally walk right into their hearts!
I think Jesus was exactly like that!
There was never the slightest bit of cynicism or callousness in the heart of Jesus as He walked this Earth. There was no self-protection in the Son of God. Even when He was reviled He didn’t close Himself up! He was an open book for all the world to see. His innocence allowed His heart to flow out to others, and it made a way for others to enter into Him.
If you go all the way back to the beginning of creation the blessedness of Paradise was in innocence. It was only after Adam and Eve lost innocence that they felt the need to run away and hide and cover up and conceal themselves.
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed together fig leaves and they made for themselves coverings. Then they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden at the wind of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.“ -Genesis 3:7-8
Can you see them hiding among the trees naked and afraid, desperate to cover and conceal themselves?
This is the work of Satan in the world- to bring the whole human race into shame and hiding.
Oh, how the enemy of our souls hates innocence! He will do anything he can to steal it and tarnish it. Innocence is the image of God in a human being. When God said that He made us in His image, innocence is surely the glory of His nature.
“For it is indeed fitting for us to have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.” -Hebrews 7:26
The Serpent came to steal innocence away from the human race; Jesus Christ came to restore it.
No matter how great the fall, or how high the wall, Jesus is able to bring us back to a place of innocence. When Jesus said that He came that we might have life, and that we might have it “more abundantly”, an enormous part of that is the restoration of innocence.
The loss of innocence destroys our capacity for intimacy. It is simply impossible to enjoy an abundant life if we’re walled-up and afraid to let others in.
Remember when I said that it is the innocent heart that is most able to see, to feel, to enjoy? Jesus is the one who said it first!
“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” -Matthew 3:8
Innocence not only allows our hearts to see God, but innocence allows our hearts to see and experience one another too. Notice what the Apostle John has to say about this…
“If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” -1 John 1:7
It is only as we “walk in the light” that we are really able to have fellowship with one another. If we walk in darkness our connection with each other is broken. We can understand from this why Satan wanted to destroy the innocence that Adam and Eve walked in. His intention was to break the connection they had with God, and to destroy the relationship they had with each other. The Apostle tells us that if we “walk in the light”, connection to God and each other is restored, and the blood of Jesus will keep it that way by cleansing us from the sin that would otherwise harden our heart!
Every decadent act, every impure thing, stains and hardens our heart to God and each other. Sin builds an impenetrable wall around our hearts so that we cannot get out and others cannot get in. The world seems to go out of it’s way to celebrate decadence, but we celebrate innocence because it is the only way a heart can be free to live and love the way God intended.
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” – Ezekiel 36:26