There is a story of a young child who had to deal with wetting their bed. Their childhood friends would tease them with a rhyme that connected to the word “pee.” This poor child was helpless to protect themself. They were exposed and ashamed. You could also see that they were angry, not so much at the other kids and their teasing as at themselves, at their weakness and inability not to do that for which they were being taunted. Sometimes, kids are powerless to stop wetting their beds long after they’ve matured enough to experience great shame in doing it. Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes that children such as these belong to the kingdom of God. Jesus had just such a child in mind when he made that statement. But generally, we need to understand why the kingdom belongs to children. We tend to idealize the innocence of children, and childlike innocence is a beautiful quality. However, that is not what Jesus idealizes in a child. The quality that makes children so apt to receive the kingdom is not so much their innocence as their helplessness, their powerlessness to not wet their beds, among other things. Very young children cannot feed themselves, let alone provide for themselves. And certainly, they cannot protect themselves, especially against their own weaknesses. There is a congenital ineptness inside us, and try as we might, we cannot always or often protect ourselves against our weaknesses. That’s basic biblical anthropology. But there is something even more important theologically here. Physically, our life’s bloom is short-lived, and long before we are ready for it, our bodies begin again to betray us. Wrinkles, fat, and the humiliating sags of mid-life appear in ways that cannot be hidden. Our friends don’t tease and taunt us about these weaknesses, as very young kids do. They don’t need to; we are painfully aware of our inadequacies. That is true for us emotionally and morally, too. But this is the point: in the face of our inadequacies, we must begin to see ourselves as God sees us, a child who cannot yet be fully responsible for their life. Then, our shame can give way to tender compassion. We are all bed-wetters and live in that humiliation. But, as Jesus assures us, to such as these belongs the kingdom of heaven.