It is an interesting time in our house. Our oldest has decided to go to college (finally!) and our youngest has decided that despite being almost done with 1st grade in homeschooling, she is going to go to Kindergarten on the school bus. I am watching both deal with confidence and uncertainty.
They went together with their Daddy to shop for school supplies for the younger sister the other day. While our little one has indeed decided to step out, she still climbs onto my lap to discuss things that are "scary". The older one is wishing she was getting new crayons and glue sticks because Kindergarten is a whole lot less scary than starting college. I suppose this is true because she has already been to Kindergarten and knows what it is like.
However, they both know that though they will go off each day into the unknown, if they are in trouble all they need do is call home. Of course at the end of the day they will come home. The love from home will follow them out into the world.
Such is the way of Christ and His Church. We are called to be part of the family of God and be at home in the Church until it is time to go Home to Heaven to be with the Lord. In all my life I have travelled near and far and whenever things get a little scary, I go to the nearest parish and there I am home.
As Christians we are called to an even greater goal. "Thy Kingdom come, They will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." We are called to go out from home (the Church) into the world that we are to be in but not a part of and we are called to do the will of God so that the whole world should be transformed into one big Church and His will is done everywhere.
Today as I look at the world and all of the unrest and even the Secretary of State is cutting trips for peace short and heading back to the security of the US, I realize what uncertainty we are asked to walk in. And yet we are to walk there with the certainty that God is with us. We are called to walk in a world that does not want us nor does it want the God that so loved this world He sent His only begotten son.
So I am looking at the unknown and wishing for new crayons and glue sticks. I am wishing that Kindergarten was the scariest thing in the world today. I am wishing that my other child was home and fretting about school rather than being so close to the unrest.
I realize that I am just an overgrown 5 year old and when things get scary I climb up into God's lap where I am safe. It is then that I realize just how big God's lap really is, because there is room for everybody. Instead of the uncertainty, God wants each of us to come home and be safe in His love.
This is the faith of the little child. We hand all of the big things over to God and put our world together with glue sticks and color it with crayons and know that our Father loves such flimsy and imperfect offerings so much that He will in His goodness carry all of us forth into eternity.
____________________ Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. - Augustine
