Children who place the figure of the Christ Child in the manager at Christmas are forever rooted in truth and wonder. Later recollections recapture this treasured moment and awaken one's heart to the beauty of belief.
This is true, Elizabeth. I have a photo I love of my mother holding little me up to see the nativity set she collected after she and my father were married -- a set from Green's Department Store. I was always fascinated by it, and in time it became my loved task to set it up at Christmas time. My mother gave me the set, and for some long time now Jessica has been in charge of setting it up every year. I have strong childhood memories of that nativity set, and that it wasn't to be played with like dolls -- but reverenced.
Thanks for those gracious words. You know, I often think that the large-scale entry of EVERYBODY into electoral politics has not done our political system much good, but it has pretty much reoriented everybody away from the real life of ordinary human relations -- families, neighborhoods, children playing, all the sweetness and the sadness and the joy of human love and devotion. And what do we do now? We want children to be precociously "adult," thinking of sex, careers, power, ambition, even at age 8, and the result is that nobody is playing on my lawn, no boys are getting into snowball fights, no girls are skipping rope, and nobody understands that we enter the kingdom of God, even insofar as we can do so here in this life, only as little children...
Thank you, Lucy, for sharing that. Do you know this hymn, one of my favorites? We all need this reminder all the time. I wish I could find a link to this sung, but the words are:
Children who place the figure of the Christ Child in the manager at Christmas are forever rooted in truth and wonder. Later recollections recapture this treasured moment and awaken one's heart to the beauty of belief.
This is true, Elizabeth. I have a photo I love of my mother holding little me up to see the nativity set she collected after she and my father were married -- a set from Green's Department Store. I was always fascinated by it, and in time it became my loved task to set it up at Christmas time. My mother gave me the set, and for some long time now Jessica has been in charge of setting it up every year. I have strong childhood memories of that nativity set, and that it wasn't to be played with like dolls -- but reverenced.
prophetic
Thank you for that kind observation. My husband modestly says that he only writes what he sees, but I think he sees very clearly.
Thank you for reminding me of "..the Child...", and not the political-adult.
Thank you for reminding me of our "..Herod-Heartedness.."
That's the most accurate depiction of Original Sin I've ever encountered.
Dear Mr. Haney,
Thanks for those gracious words. You know, I often think that the large-scale entry of EVERYBODY into electoral politics has not done our political system much good, but it has pretty much reoriented everybody away from the real life of ordinary human relations -- families, neighborhoods, children playing, all the sweetness and the sadness and the joy of human love and devotion. And what do we do now? We want children to be precociously "adult," thinking of sex, careers, power, ambition, even at age 8, and the result is that nobody is playing on my lawn, no boys are getting into snowball fights, no girls are skipping rope, and nobody understands that we enter the kingdom of God, even insofar as we can do so here in this life, only as little children...
So true: we have lost much, and gained little.
When I die I want to go to Heaven,
The Lord has got a mansion for me there,
Filled with every kind of wonder,
Everything that’s good and true and fair.
When I die I want to go to Heaven,
But one thing that the Lord has made real clear,
Unless we become as little children,
His Kingdom and its glory we’ll not share.
Lord, stay with me a while,
Sweet Jesus help me to go that extra mile,
Take away from me all that defiles,
And give mr the heart,
The heart of a little child.
Beginning of a song I wrote.
Thank you, Lucy, for sharing that. Do you know this hymn, one of my favorites? We all need this reminder all the time. I wish I could find a link to this sung, but the words are:
It fell upon a summer day,
When Jesus walked in Galilee,
The mothers from a village brought
Their children to his knee.
He took them in his arms, and laid
His hands on each remembered head;
"Allow these little ones to come
to me,' he gently said.
'Forbid them not; unless ye bear
The childlike heart your hearts within,
Unto my kingdom ye may come,
But may not enter in.'
Then, Father, grant this childlike heart,
That I may come to Christ, and feel
His hands on me in blessing laid,
Love-giving, strong to heal.