Jesus, You often exhorted Your disciples to come away with You to a quiet place and pray. Help me to find that “quiet place” in the midst of all the noise in the world no matter where I am throughout the day where my prayers will be most effective. Amen
Reflection
I have been richly blessed my entire life and one of my greatest blessings is my family. The youngest is my 2 ½ -year-old granddaughter, Lily, who is a complete joy. Jesus tells us that to become the greatest in the kingdom one must become like a child. (Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14) What does this mean?
Lily seems far from humble as she is a very active and inquisitive toddler. In other words, she is in the midst of what is aptly named the “terrible twos”. But in reality she is totally and completely reliant on the adults in her life for everything; food, clothing, shelter, warmth and love. Without adults, she could not survive, despite what she thinks.
I have to wonder; am I like that when it comes to my relationship with God? Do I rely on Him for everything, or am I just another overly proud human who thinks he can do it all for himself? Jesus may have meant many things when He spoke of becoming like a child, but for me I think He was pointing out my complete dependence on God.
On the other hand, I think He wants me to keep increasing my knowledge of Him as I stay child-like. Again, I think of several observations I made of Lily last week while I was on vacation. She is showing signs of being very reflective in her learning. There were many times that she was just sitting quietly, playing with this toy or that but at the same time you could see her mouthing words silently, or using subtle hand gestures she had seen others make throughout the day. She wanted me to sing the ABC’s to her so many times that Marilyn and Alicia at one point begged me to stop, because it was so redundant! I replied that as long as she is learning, what difference does it make how many times she wants to repeat it?
It emphasized to me how important it is to simply stop and think about what we are doing, why we are doing it and where we are going. Today’s culture does not encourage reflection. Go, go, go! Every waking hour has to be filled. If the page does not come up in five seconds, click on to the next. I don’t have time to talk, so I’ll just text. The disciples are classic examples of this. They wanted to know how to be the greatest. No time to pray for guidance. Just give it to us. How many do we have to heal? Tell us in 20 words or less. Jesus, time and again, has to tell the disciples to come away with Him to a quiet place. It is very good advice. There is absolutely nothing more peaceful than going to Adoration and just listening to what Jesus wants to tell me.
No comments:
Post a Comment