Concerts

My boys are still young. Yeah, I got a very late start on the parenting thing. Thank Goodness. I don't know that I would have appreciated the world if I hadn't had the maturity that years had brought by the time my first was born. Others probably have more capacity for taking in the full impact of a little baby coming into the world, but I am convinced that I didn't until my eldest was born. Bryan.

Bryan constantly shocked us as he grew with the things he did, the things he said, and the things he seemed to know without having ever been instructed. At the time I told myself that I would never forget these things, but I have.

Ben is the same way, constantly exposing the wonder of the world around us with ideas that are so naive that they are deep. I'll tell you a story about him in just a second.

Somebody correct me, but I think it was CS Lewis who wrote about catching a glimpse of heaven at a most unexpected time. If I recall correctly that moment for him was one brightly lit morning when he awoke in his bed to see the sun shining its rays through his window and making the comforter at the foot of his bed brilliant in its radiance. For just a moment he was stunned by the perfection of the scene and was unable to breathe, to move, or to let his mind wander lest the moment be lost. And just as soon as he recognized it, it was gone.
Cool, huh. I don't know that it was a glimps of heaven, but perhaps it was a moment of apprehension when Lewis had full understanding of the intense spirituality of our home right here on earth.

We often think about life as a journey from birth to death. Death is our destination. Some Christians modify the structure of the same old perspective just a little and suggest that a new life will come after death which will bear enough similarities to this one that we may have the same identity but in all other respects this world will be a thing of the ugly past. What a horribly negative way of viewing the world. What a terrible trashing of God's gifts.

Some have suggested to me that they can't wait to get removed from this S-Hole of a world so that they can see God. They are missing the fact that they can see God right now. He is everywhere, with us, in us, and His wonder and beauty is in everything He created. No, the human race has not destroyed God's creation, it remains with us, lifting us to awe of Him whenever we take the time to lose our imagination into the depths of the endless sky above, or the endless universe contained in an atom. And we see something of Him in everyone we meet, as well. In some He's more perfected than others, of course, but He's there.

I was walking home from the weightroom with Benjamin, my youngest. He was about 5 years old, and full of energy (as he is even now). And he was constantly trying to provoke me to something, anything, to interaction with him. So as we walked, Ben and I, Ben would run ahead and call back to his old man, "Hurry Papa, Hurry!" I had just spent a couple hours lifing, and I was exhausted, so the almost imperceptible bounce I added to my step had to suffice as compliance with Ben's urging.

Not enough for the 5 year old. Ben would run back to me, then out ahead again, calling back "Hurry Papa, Hurry." And this went on for about a block before Ben ran far enough ahead that he disappeared over the bank of a small river (more of a creek). And then his head appeared over the bank and shouted, "Hurry Papa, Hurry! You have to see this!"

Concerned that he was about to demonstrate the Swan Dive for me, I decided that I could put a little more energy into my step and actually hurry...just in case. So I got to the river, over the bank, and stood by Ben, who had a grin that transformed not only his face but mine.

"You gotta see this Papa," he said and he picked up a handfull of gravel from the river bank. He looked to be sure that I was watching, threw the rocks into the river, and turned to me.

"Did you hear it, Papa? Did you hear it? They're playing a concert for us!"

I looked away for just long enough to regain my composure.

Here's a thought that bears further consideration. Do you realize that we get offended when we think that people have trespassed into our space in some way, or that they haven't given us enough respect? How about the fact that we feel violated when we conclude that someone has trampled our rights. Suppose we realize that we have no ego to protect and no rights at all to assert? If we can lose our identity entirely in God then those "violations" against us, all those hurtful words and offenses, will have no sting at all. We can simply do the right thing without regard to the responses or reactions we get from other people, and when they disrespect us, we won't be there to be disrespected. In fact, if we take our eyes off of ourselves, we might be able to see more clearly that those who grate against us are children of God in waiting, just waiting for our unconventional response to their attack so that they can see not the strength and awesomeness of our character, but God's grace and forgiveness--kind of like offering the other cheek when we have been slapped on the first. Maybe if we stop looking so much at ourselves we can see the concert in the trickling of a brook, the rustle of leaves, the new growth in spring, and the pure blanket of snow in winter, or the awesome power of a storm and the crashing of the surf.

We don't need to have more of God in us to help us see with spiritual eyes the spiritual world all around us. We need to lose ourselves in Him.