Saturday, October 30, 2010

Faith in God

“I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.” Matthew 11:25
            God is present in every part of our lives. There is not a moment, not a fold, not a sigh of our existence that he does not fill with his love. And yet we so seldom see him there.
           
            What can we do to recognize the mystery of God’s grace? Jesus’ answer is, “be like little children.” My daughter Marie-Claude, when she was three years old, gave me a glimpse of what Jesus meant.

             I was walking down a very steep, very high flight of stairs in our century-old house where we were living during our stay in Papineauville, Quebec. I had just reached the bottom step when I heard a tiny voice behind me calling, “Papa!’ I turned around, looked up, and saw a flying grinning face coming towards me. My daughter had seen me at the bottom of the stairwell and spontaneously decided to take a shortcut - after all, why walk when you can fly? There was no long debate in her tiny little head as to whether or not the “old man” could catch her, or on the wisdom of flying without a license. She simply saw with the eyes of her trust in me. There was no doubt in her heart that “papa” could catch her. Jumping was not folly and the present could and should be lived with a big grin on ones face.

              When our trust in our heavenly “papa” is deeply rooted, we can fly into his arms no matter the circumstances, and if that trust is firm enough, we can even smile while we are doing so! 

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