One of my most influential teachers, Msgr. Theo Okere, once told me, “Never forget that little child in you. Never let go of that beauty and innocence of soul reflected in your childhood commitments to God.”
Most of us, as children, had a purer vision of the world than we do today. As a child, I wanted to serve God and my neighbors and bring goodness to creation and smiles to the faces of others.
Childhood may not have been ideal, especially for those of us who grew up in difficult conditions after the Civil War in Nigeria.
But childhood is a world of purity of intention that was free of the destructive forces of human ego (Edging God Out), vengefulness, intrigues, rivalry, selfishness, greed, and pride, which ache us existentially if left unchecked in our adult life.
When we set our minds on the things of God, when we embrace the mind of Jesus, we realize that most of the things we fight for, worry about, and argue about are really passing things.
In the eyes of God, only few things matter and those who find the things that matter in life (God’s purpose for creating them and for renting them a life today) are happy and find rest for their souls.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel that we can see this thing that matters, if we embrace the simplicity, innocence, purity of heart, and trustfulness of a little child.
I think the Lord is also emphasizing a child’s humility, vulnerability, and openness to loving and being loved, the child’s submission to authority and docility to the promptings of grace and love; the child-like trust and lack of complications and the absence of malice in the simple hearts of children-they just want to play and to love and be loved.
Let us all remember the little child in us! It will do you a lot of good in these uncertain times.
Questions for Meditation
Do I know the little child in me? What is that child telling me? What were my childhood dreams?
