as a child

My former spiritual director blogs over at poetproph, and I commend to you her post from Tuesday August 14th. In it she reflects on the impact her family's annual beach week has on her faith journey, especially in light of her reading of mystic writer Thomas Traheme.

She writes, "This year I'm reading the mystic writer Thomas Traherne, who speaks of knowing, in early childhood, that the world is alive with mystery and the presence of God, and then losing that as he is educated in the ways of the world, with its focus on things and status"

In light of the call to be God's children in the Hebrew's lesson for Sunday, it seems clear that approaching God as his children, uncorrupted by the values of this world, is key to our faith journey. As is always the case, however, there are two sides to this. To approach God as a child approaches a parent is be open to the fullness of his love; both in the outpouring of grace and mercy and in the call to straighten up and fly right. Discipline comes from love, and grace comes from discipline. Most of the time, it seems, we approach God ready to take whatever gifts he might offer, but far too sophisticated for any rebuke he might offer. It is in humility, approaching God like a child, that we most clearly understand our relationship to him; most fully realize the depth of his love; and most clearly see the fruit of righteousness that it will yield.