A Moment Aside for 7 May 2021

 A Moment Aside --- 7 May 2021

                                                                   

We spend a lot of time “adulting”, that is, acting like we actually have grown up and are no longer children. Then we turn our play into “therapy” in order to return to our “work” refreshed and reenergized. We face the challenges of society and the world around us with a courage that almost seems to be born of desperation.

We have forgotten the lessons we learned as children. We forget that there is beauty and wonder all around us. We forget to look up from our ledgers and keyboards and machines and cooktops at the stars or the clouds or the birds. It is true that all of us have to work for much or what we have and that is actually a good thing… because besides earning a living, those activities permit us to join in the act of creation that God began and that God continues.

The oddest thing about what I just wrote there is that very often only those who can look up at the birds, clouds, and stars perceive the presence of God in what they do in what is called “work.” Growing crops, manufacturing items, taking care of people, teaching those who search for knowledge permits us to join in with God’s creative energy and mind that sustains all of creation.

We forget this at times. We’re no longer willing to tilt at windmills, struggle with dragons, take the One Ring to Mordor, fly to Mars, or wander the Hundred Acre Wood…

… because it’s childish and we’ve grown past all that.

In our adult minds, we forget the lessons of childhood – sharing, laughter, the value of snow and rain as snow or rain, and that dragons can be defeated by courageous people.

Maybe it’s time to be just a little more childlike again.

Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.  Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it. (Mark 10:14-15)