The Wonder of a Child

The Wonder of a Child

From the smile on the face of a child to even the most needy response they cry out for love from you or me.  There is no greater effort to be given to another human being than the answer of our care when they are in the deepest sorrow from pain, loneliness, and just wet diapers.  

We have at our disposal the means to comfort each child at all ages through placing a pair of loving arms around them, brushing away lonely tears, bandaging a bruised knee, and showing the deepest care when attending to their biological experiences.  

The patterns we endure as these children mature from infancy, through adolescence, to an age where they still carry the cry of helplessness.  One only needs to be part of a child’s outcome from the mistake too many parents view from their baby who becomes involved in life’s mishaps and as he or she sits in the grip of the law from stupid mistakes made.

How often we become recipients of the lost soul that we once cuddled and carried around at night to ease the pain from a dream.  We were there every time something entered their lives, erasing the gentle warmth we covered them with as they stepped into adult life and for the first time saw the world we didn’t create, but had to tolerate.  

Most times we as parents want to let our young fly from the nest and seek their world with as much of our guidance as possible.  The reality is they will encounter obstacles that we may not have been able to prepare them for and as each one returns to the security of the nest we shall be again the blanket covering their emptiness and loneliness needing the scars of life to be healed. 

While each of us prepares for the advent of Christ’s birth we should take time to look at the life that our Savior lived before his baptism and eventual ministry that fought off the attack Satan stepped in and tested his tenacious strength.  As a child he grew up under the tutelage of his parents.  He learned to be a skilled carpenter becoming one who delved into building relationships with other people besides using his intellect as God’s emissary.  

As a man he took on a mission and leaving the nest also would encounter evil that the world would put in his way.  There must have been instances that as a young man he wanted to seek that blanket of comfort he left behind.  Be assured, even as God Jesus still had human needs that he remembered receiving from his mother and Joseph.  How, I am certain, he longed for that touch of comfort which his mother was there to give him.  No matter how often we go away from home, the love of our mother doesn’t diminish.  Even on the cross Jesus remembered his mother who remained with him as he died for us.

Think of the comfort we had as we grew up and are able to return back to the arms of our loving mothers.  As Jesus spent 3 years repairing the church as with Francis of Assisi, he did not forget his roots, his mother, and the love she never forgot for her only son.  That is a precious thought that we should hold onto as Advent brings us closer to one like us.  A brother who presents his mother to us as we stand with her at the cross.   

Ralph B. Hathaway