My next retreat is in March and so I’m in that fevered race to find things that inspire me. And that I can share with other people. I love this part of the process.
One of my favorite stories that Father Rusty shares with others is about a little three year old girl. She’s a brand new big sister; her parents have just brought home a new baby. She’s proud to be a new sister. And one night she says to her parents, “Mommy and Daddy, can I talk to the baby by myself?”
The parents hesitate, but figure it’s fine if she goes in and talks to her new brother all alone. They stand outside the door, and listen.
She goes to the crib, and puts her hands around the rails, leaning in close to her brother.
“Quick, you just came from there, so can you tell me what tell me what God is like?!?” she says,”I need to know, and I’m beginning to forget.”
For some reason, I was reminded of this amazing story when I heard this song. There’s such a longing to return to an innocent time, even at the early age of three. We all long for a a time when we all approached the world with new eyes, with “beginners” eyes. What if we could go back, and remember what God is like? What it was like to be so close to God’s love and our native, inspired state of a soul that has just arrived into a body here on Earth? It strikes me that for our whole lives, we long to return to something we barely remember. A faint dream of a God who loves us, who named each of us, who knows us completely, and who kissed each of us as we arrived here to find our way.