Hardened and Softened

This morning I was editing my second son's essay comparing Coleridge and Blake and their spiritual views (an interesting essay by a son who wants nothing to do with Christianity). He wrote, "Innocence plays a large role in Christianity in that the innocent, unknowing child is spotless of sin, and therefore instantly gains entrance to the kingdom of heaven; this is seen also in Blake's 'A Cradle Song', wherein the Christ Child's image is likened to the image of all newborns and shows that experience is what hardens the human soul."

That got me thinking. If it is experience that hardens the human soul, and my experience and all I've read and been taught would substantiate this, then would not experience be what would soften it? The experience that hardens is the experience we have with sinful man and his wounding power. The experience that heals is the experience we have with holy God and His healing power. It isn't knowledge that wounds or heals. It isn't doctrine or dogma either. It is only when we have an encounter with the living God and He impacts our lives in a real and experiential way that we begin to soften towards Him.