Become like children

For years I have wondered what Jesus meant by: "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). What do children have that some or most of us lack and why does this lack prevent us from entering the kingdom of heaven (the state of awareness in which we know what's happening)?

Natalie recently taught me. We had given her some bread that contained honey, not knowing that some young children are allergic to honey. So she got a diaper rash that got so bad that her skin broke. It was clearly very painful, especially in bath when we used soap to clean her. She cried. My wife and I were desperate; we had caused the pain of our sweet little girl. She used to have the greatest fun in bath, and now she was crying. We worried whether she would heal completely and how long it would take.

Before we put on her diaper my wife put some cream on her buttocks. It worked very fast and took away the pain. Right at that moment Natalie started laughing again. I wondered "How can you laugh when you have a diaper rash?" Then I realized the pain had been taken away and so had her reason to cry.