Be Child-Like...Not Childish

 

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, and reason like a child.  But when I became an adult, I put childish ways aside.  Now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror; then we will see face to face. 

 

Go back and look at your drawing from Monday.  Look at the words you wrote inside your heart.  Where have you lived those words this week?  Look at the words outside the heart.  Did you have experiences of the Eternal this week that helped draw those words closer to you?  Were there any experiences that caused the initially objectionable words to inch closer to your heart?  In many ways, our inner child never tires of coloring on the canvas of life.  Our inner child loves to play and participate in this beautiful, if broken, world.  Our inner child knows that laughter is a prayer.  Our inner child knows that a cookie with milk is communion.  Our inner child knows that God is found in trees and birds and snails that have so much to teach us, if only we stop scrolling and staring at our phones.  Lacy Finn Borgo tells us that there is a difference between being childish and being childlike.  Childish is throwing temper tantrums (note how often adults do this at meetings and on social media).  Childish is always wanting your way.  Childish is thinking that the world revolves around you.  Child-like is to be lost in wonder, love, and praise.  Borgo writes, “Children possess a natural, unique to them, connective consciousness. It has not been chosen or even cultivated through hours of meditation or psychedelic trips. Instead, the plasticity of the developing brain offers connective wonder through a lack of previous experiences and an innocent openness to the world. God has wired each and every one of us for this.”  How can you let loose your inner child today?  What if you went back and read 1 Corinthians 13 with the whole box of crayons to permit your inner 5-year-old artist who loved to color before the art teacher started grading your effort?  What if you went and gazed at a lake with awe, noticing every inch?  What if you built with Legos?  What if you did what you loved to do when you were ten years old?  Let loose your inner child, who still has something to teach and tell your adult self.  May this experiment help you see deeper into the mirror of your life, where all the versions of yourself (from your earliest memory to today) are reflected in how you show up and speak up in such a time as this. Amen.