Like a Little Child

"Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." 
     - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

A few weeks ago I accompanied my hubby to a music practice. Someone was late and the person in charge asked a friend of mine, who had her first baby this year, to fill in for her. So she brought her baby to me to hold it while she went up on stage.

It had been a very long time since I'd held a baby that age - around 6 or 7 months old - it had been many years. I sat her straddling one of my legs, facing away from me so she could see her mom, and leaning her back against me. The little girl and I just enjoyed the music together. She could not speak and I chose not to as well. Yet we communicated. Every once in a while she would look up at me and then back up to the stage. It's like she was saying, "This is fun. I like this. Thank you for letting me watch everything." She demanded nothing. All I provided was a safe place for her to be while she enjoyed that moment. Lived in the present. No regrets, no worries.

I've thought about it since. I believe that babies are much more intelligent than we give them credit for being. They have a way of cutting through all the façades we adults put up; it is one reason why they are able to turn most adults into blithering idiots in the space of two minutes. They have, I believe, a vital connection with the Almighty, but since they don't have the power of speech yet, they can't communicate that to the grown-ups. Jesus knew that little children had life nailed and He said that unless we became like them, we couldn't enter into His kingship over us - His kingdom.

There is a sense of wonder, a newness, a thirst to learn, an inherent trust in the present moment, that characterizes a young baby. I think that this is what Jesus was talking about. We tend to complicate things so much. We get concerned, fret about the most unimportant things. We beat ourselves up over the mistakes of the past. We wonder about the future, about whether people like us or not, about whether we're playing by the rules and doing what's expected of us. Babies don't do that. They just are. Period.

I've found myself wanting to soak in those unspoken lessons from them, to sit at their feet if you prefer that analogy, and open my heart to the voice of the Spirit, draining away all the extraneous, and focusing on the most important thing: relationship with Him. (I saw a video clip earlier today and the person who was talking, was wearing a T-shirt that said, "It's against my relationship to have a religion." I like that.)

I wonder what life could be like if we lived in the moment, in relationship with Him, not trying to impress anyone or influence anyone. If we truly opened our innermost selves to Him with no masks, no façades, no games.

I just wonder.