Have you ever had the feeling that everyone else has mastered the art of being grown-up and you’re failing? That maybe everyone else got a secret handbook on how to be an adult or went to some clandestine meeting that you weren’t privy to and learned all about how to act mature?

I know I do sometimes. Sometimes I feel like I’ve gotten really good at faking adulthood and that at any moment a real adult is going to catch on and send me back to junior high. Or possibly 4th grade.

I truly believe that most adults are good fakers. Most of us don’t really know what we’re doing or what’s really going on but we’ve mastered the art of looking and acting like we do. Most of us would rather be in that blanket fort coloring but are too scared to admit it.

I’ve learned over my life that freedom from fear comes when you realize that you’re not the only one who struggles with that particular issue. You’re not the lone freak in a world of completely normal people. Normal is an illusion anyway and the people who seem the most normal are most likely the best at hiding their idiosyncrasies and weirdnesses from the rest of us.

I also think that most of us have grown up believing that Jesus loves the good little boys and girls. In other words, the ones who act normal. I don’t know whether that was intentionally taught or not, but most of us caught that message loud and clear.

The truth is that Jesus loves even the bad girls and boys. He loves the boys and girls who always seem to screw up, the ones who have the best intentions that somehow always turn into the worst train wrecks imaginable. He doesn’t help those who help themselves, but rather those who know they can’t.

That’s the Gospel. Jesus loves the little children, ALL the children of  the world. Even the weirdos.