Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection--Snuggle

Snuggle

MATTHEW 19:13-22

¹³Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; ¹⁴but Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs." ¹⁵And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.

When was the last time you did this?

When was the last time you let that inner child emerge?

When was the last time you played? I don’t mean cards or that game on your phone. I mean, knees dirty, tongue out, dirt under the finger nails type of playing?

When was the last time you tried to catch a firefly in a glass jar?

A scene from "the Jesus Storybook Bible." This beautiful
book, with its engaging artwork and compelling
story telling, can be found in the newly remodeled
First Presbyterian Church, Helen Musa Rankin, library
and reading room. Please come by and check it out!

When was the last time you called time out from the busyness of your day and just sat, while coloring a picture?

When was the last time you prayed as a child? When you didn’t think about the “right way” or all the different types and forms of prayer? When was the last time you snuggled on the bosom of God and sat wide-eyed or teary eyed at the feet of Jesus?

Perhaps this isn’t your thing. Perhaps this practice or thought of it is too much for you.

Then I ask, when was the last time you listened to the Spirit whispering in your being?

When was the last time you tried something new?

You, at one time, were one of these little ones. In all honesty, you still are.

So put aside that independent woman or tough guy persona and let God take care of you.

Our faith can be stunted and frustrated if it remains content with the bare externals of worship: “saying prayers,” “going to church,” being respectable. What God wants, how Jesus welcomes us, and the way the Spirit leads us, is for us to enter into our faith, this relationship with the Triune God, as children. Prayer is the deepening of personal realization in love, but also awareness of God (even if this awareness amounts to a perceived “absence”).

As children engage with the world –without pretense, without fear, and with wild, hopeful imagination-- so we should engage the practice of prayer. Remember, prayer is not just a formula of words, or a series of desires springing up in the heart, but the orientation of our whole body, mind, and spirit to God in silence, attention, and adoration.

So, when was the last time you did this?

May you come to remember that wide-eyed and wild imaginative child that lives within. May you remember that God listens to you always. 

Even when all you can pray is a whisper too quiet for words...