Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week
Recently, a neighbor came home after being gone a week. It was neat to witness his children run to lovingly greet their father. The hugs were heartfelt even at a distance. His children’s hugs without using words state, I love you, I missed you and now we are one again. For the parent, the genuine embrace of their child transforms the moment into one that feels like an encounter with the transcendent.
Imagine the story of the burning bush as a similar loving encounter. The creator and the created are in an encounter that almost makes them one, like the parent and the child. God reminds his child, Moses, who he is and what he expects of him. Moses, in bare feet and full of wonder and awe, approaches his father and with the openness of a child hears the Lord’s request, asks a question and receives reassurance. “I will always be with you.” (Ex 3:12a) My own father tried to instill a similar reassurance in his children. Even though we may be separated by distance or time, he wanted us to know that his love was always with us.
To this day, I still remember the way my father closed our nightly prayers. “We thank God everyday that you came to stay at our house.” In this prayer, God through my own father, revealed to me as a child that I was loved and that it was God’s plan for me to grow up in that family. Children learn and live what they are taught both explicitly and implicitly.
Thus, we teach our children to tell the truth. It is so instilled in them that when we ask to lie they can’t. For instance, when I keep my children up past their bedtime and then say don’t tell mom; when mom asks them about bedtime they tell the truth, as they should. Children have a sense of faith that is frankly unadulterated. They have no guile, no cynicism or sarcasm. What you see is what you get. If a parent says it, it must be true, especially if their actions echo what they say. A child’s faith is rooted in their sense of wonder and awe for all of creation. Somehow, this gets lost along the way to adulthood.
A child can often understand sharing, playing nicely with others and loving unconditionally in ways that adults have forgotten. Although this may sound cliché, spend some time remembering some of the favorite things from your childhood. If you didn’t have a good childhood, then there is no time like the present to get in touch with your inner child. Or if all else fails, observe a child at play. Most times their joy and carefree imaginative approach to life can be an encounter with the transcendent.
-Michael Montgomery