Wednesday 25th March - Seeing the world newly

DAILY BYTE

A few years ago, I bought a card that I intended to give to someone, but I can’t seem to let go of the simple, playful wisdom on it, and so I keep it in my Bible instead... The black and white picture shows a toddler’s snotty, drooly face, hair sticking out in all directions, as he presses his chin up against an old wooden window frame. The object of the child’s big-eyed delight is a small bird, staring back at him, as it spreads its wings, hovering in flight.

The caption reads, “Show me a day when the world wasn’t new,” a quotation from Sister Barbara Hance. The past two days, we have been exploring Aaron’s, the Israelites’ and our own responsibilities. Our roles and the world’s demands on our time and energy can deaden our sense of life’s newness and possibilities. We tend to drag one day’s failures and insufficiencies into the next. We bring one day’s depression and anger into the next day’s sun. And when the day is over, and we are exhausted, we feel as though we have seen it all.

But childlike faith can teach us something about how to see the world newly each day. Instead of assuming they have all the answers, children naturally ask questions. Their memories don’t hold as many grudges or as many debts. Instead of seeing the world as one big problem or a conglomeration of problems that need to be solved immediately and by them, children know inherently that everything exists for their delight.

One of my favourite occupations is babysitting children around the age of two because at this stage of life, they are in the midst of a language explosion. There is nothing in the world comparable to the delight on a child’s face when he or she discovers a new part of the great and marvellous world. Because children can discover without raising their eyes too high. They see what is in the small world around them, and if the bigger world comes crashing down on them, or if they fall, the do not immediately try to control the situation. Instead, they grieve, and they cry out to someone bigger who can help them when they are struggle. Someone who can teach them to take responsibility for the fact that they climbed up the tree with branches that were too high, but someone who can also hold them when they’re hurting and cry alongside them in seeing and experiencing their pain.

Is your soul dragging on day by day, consuming itself with “things too great and too marvellous”? Or, is it awed by the ever-new beauty of the creation in front of your nose?

Is it like a two-year-old, a “weaned child,” who delights in exploring the world but knows where to turn when falling, requiring forgiveness, needing sustenance, or craving comfort?

Commenting on someone’s “old soul” is usually a compliment, but can a soul be old and young at the same time? Can we have the faith of a wise old sage and a child simultaneously? How old is your soul?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Father God, guide us through our responsibilities by sharing Your wisdom with us. Teach us to be discerning, accepting, and grieving people. But in the midst of such serious matters, teach us to see the world as new every day. Allow it to be our heart’s delight. And, when we climb the tree to see the high places, and we fall, teach us to cry out to you and find forgiveness and comfort in your care. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Psalm 131

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvellous for me. But I have quieted and calmed my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore.