If you have a household of children, there is probably very little waiting and watching going on in your house, unless, of course, we count watching the clock and waiting for their bedtime so you can get a little peace.
But, wait! There is a great deal of watching as you watch your little one learn to walk and that first grader conquer the art of reading. There is watching your children interact and become each others advocates and best friends.
For the parents of teenagers there is the waiting time: waiting for them to get home with the car, waiting for college acceptance letters, waiting for a budding romance to burn out or blossom (another whole set of watching and waiting there).
What are we watching and waiting for? That really is a good question.
Does our day to day watching keep us from enjoying the fullness of each day's gift?
Does our waiting for some milestone marker keep us from simply being with each other today, right now?
God's future is coming to us and the birth of Jesus is the first installment. Tomorrow we begin our watching and waiting.
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Chasing rainbows
We must risk delight.
Delight and children go together, perhaps because 'delight' requires a freedom of time and space and person that fades away as we mature. You can see delight in a child's eyes - the butterfly they are chasing, the present hidden inside bright wrapping paper, the candles on the birthday cake. It is not just their eyes - delight energizes their entire body so that dancing and jumping accompanied by a tad of squealing comes as a package deal.
It is more than receiving something nice. It is about the wonder of the beauty and mystery and adventure right before their eyes. Somehow their entire body knows that something amazing is happening right now, so they enter into an experience, body and soul, to be where all the cosmic forces are in harmony.
Somewhere in our growing up we shed our capacity for delight. We probably got smart, learned that dreams don't always come true, worried about looking like fools. But in the process, we gave away those moments when the sheer power of life being lived energizes our entire being. We gave away our certainty about tomorrow. Graveyards were our certainty; gardens but a possibility.
So hear again the words of Easter morn "He is not here. He has been raised." Graveyards have become gardens. Resurrection is a recapturing of our capacity for delight - for trusting that this God of the Universe continues to be 'good' for all the God promises.
To believe is to risk delight in the name of God.
Delight and children go together, perhaps because 'delight' requires a freedom of time and space and person that fades away as we mature. You can see delight in a child's eyes - the butterfly they are chasing, the present hidden inside bright wrapping paper, the candles on the birthday cake. It is not just their eyes - delight energizes their entire body so that dancing and jumping accompanied by a tad of squealing comes as a package deal.
It is more than receiving something nice. It is about the wonder of the beauty and mystery and adventure right before their eyes. Somehow their entire body knows that something amazing is happening right now, so they enter into an experience, body and soul, to be where all the cosmic forces are in harmony.
Somewhere in our growing up we shed our capacity for delight. We probably got smart, learned that dreams don't always come true, worried about looking like fools. But in the process, we gave away those moments when the sheer power of life being lived energizes our entire being. We gave away our certainty about tomorrow. Graveyards were our certainty; gardens but a possibility.
So hear again the words of Easter morn "He is not here. He has been raised." Graveyards have become gardens. Resurrection is a recapturing of our capacity for delight - for trusting that this God of the Universe continues to be 'good' for all the God promises.
To believe is to risk delight in the name of God.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
No Hunger Games here
Too many children go to bed without enough food in their stomachs. I have read as many as 1 in 5 children in the US are hungry. Add to that number the children and adults around the world who are unsure of where their next meal will come from, and we have a serious problem on our hands.
The World Hunger Appeal and the Good Gifts program of the ELCA address just these issues at home and abroad. Go to elca.org and participate in making a difference.
The Church provides more than nourishment for the soul and spirit; it fills tummies as well. We will gather at the communion table this Sunday and be nourished by the hand of Jesus. Let us reach out our hands and help nourish the hungry in our world as well.
The World Hunger Appeal and the Good Gifts program of the ELCA address just these issues at home and abroad. Go to elca.org and participate in making a difference.
The Church provides more than nourishment for the soul and spirit; it fills tummies as well. We will gather at the communion table this Sunday and be nourished by the hand of Jesus. Let us reach out our hands and help nourish the hungry in our world as well.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Where love and hurt abounds
It is time for us to [attempt] to listen with open hearts to 'the divorce text.' We are treading on dangerous ground, a veritable mine field of emotions, for marriage and divorce are places where both love and hurt abound.
Genesis sets the tone for us this week. We look at the Genesis 2 rendering of the creation of man and woman: co-partners in God's work. Man is ish and Woman is ishshah (in the Hebrew) and the words alone tell us something of the relationship between these two.
At the first glimpse of Woman, Man cries out, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!" There is rejoicing. There is fellowship. There is a partnership forged to care for one another and all of God's creation.
By the time we get to the gospel of Mark, the bloom is off the rose and the Pharisees are trying to back Jesus into a corner. Focused on a legal system that had developed through the centuries, the Pharisees want Jesus to confirm or deny a man's superior rights and minimal obligations when the wedding of two turns into two households, two individuals.
Jesus is unwilling to play that game. He goes all the way back to Genesis and points out what God's intent was for creation - no one is to be left powerless, vulnerable. Every person bears consequences for his/her own actions, and God's kingdom of God has a special line for the nameless ones at the bottom of the heap.
It will be hard for folks to hear the nuances of these lessons because, as we all know, marriage and its unwelcome relative: divorce, are places where both great love and great hurt abound. Pray for those who are hurt when they hear this lesson; pray they will hear Jesus' call of love to them.
Genesis sets the tone for us this week. We look at the Genesis 2 rendering of the creation of man and woman: co-partners in God's work. Man is ish and Woman is ishshah (in the Hebrew) and the words alone tell us something of the relationship between these two.
At the first glimpse of Woman, Man cries out, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!" There is rejoicing. There is fellowship. There is a partnership forged to care for one another and all of God's creation.
By the time we get to the gospel of Mark, the bloom is off the rose and the Pharisees are trying to back Jesus into a corner. Focused on a legal system that had developed through the centuries, the Pharisees want Jesus to confirm or deny a man's superior rights and minimal obligations when the wedding of two turns into two households, two individuals.
Jesus is unwilling to play that game. He goes all the way back to Genesis and points out what God's intent was for creation - no one is to be left powerless, vulnerable. Every person bears consequences for his/her own actions, and God's kingdom of God has a special line for the nameless ones at the bottom of the heap.
It will be hard for folks to hear the nuances of these lessons because, as we all know, marriage and its unwelcome relative: divorce, are places where both great love and great hurt abound. Pray for those who are hurt when they hear this lesson; pray they will hear Jesus' call of love to them.
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