2024-12-22 A Meditation on Small Things and Big

“28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. 3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” (1 John 2:28-3:3 ESV)

The leaf that hides the moon, to guess at what is “out there” is somehow to react to or reason with our own child’s mobile, a constellation of life experiences and hopes and fears, things we were astonished to find or that had some deep resonance, meaning in a world of chattel, of catch-all promises of “therapy” or “fix-ups”. We met our father or mother, for example, not just around the dinner table, but in their element, with their colleagues, and we emerged as that one who is inspired to celebrate a bit, to hug and announce: here is a friend.

Who prompted that? It is a fact of life together that we scarcely know who or what is “out there” beyond the Importance of some brand of reflection, some brand of due diligence: we persecute those whom we love, sometimes. We challenge those to whom we are also submitting. And, what is “out there” is politely labelled according to our own neuroses or frameworks. What is so-and-so to so-and-so: what would this friend or family member or coworker see as inspirational about a role model “out there”? What if their assessments are not nearly as cynical or calculating as generally accepted? Who, after all, sees the beauty in a relationship minus the top-heavy doubts.

We doubt, because our outlook is uniquely ours. No one else quite has our child’s mobile or framework, our constellation. The parents’ exhibition of fear, this is because of their own experience of a Watching Eye “out there”, who will come with recompense, to reward the duly diligent, and the punish the lazy and lax.

No one else needs know the full gambit or mock-up: we have an inclination to discover precisely what was our trail of bread crumbs all along: the magazines we read, the servant-teacher experiences we have had, the employee-employer relationships we have had, the tv we watch and the ways we expansively explore the world in our off-time: all this is summed up in a notion of “out there” Truth such as we are just innocently enough itching to learn more of.

Until we do, and then we rest secure that our framework is well-founded, rooted and of firm foundation. We have our personal mythology, you could even say, of things Radical, spoken of in hushed tones, reminders not to tread on another’s domain, perhaps, or rather a child’s invite to play… in Expansiveness: this land is your land, this land is my land. And we know, the ultimate puncture to all our cynicism, is the grand entrance, that God as a Father, a Mother, a present Spirit, is for real, is “out there”, is scheming to reward and train, to punish and disciple, simply to Be, grandstanding, masking in holy Rest a joyous and provocative Disposition.

He is disposed, we are squinting in the light. We always knew of original sin, yet this has reached its destructive limits: only the one who approaches is trapped in sin: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, have better things on their mind. He, She, the Totality of the Trinity, is true to life, no boring variation on our parents’ religion, but cool and cooing along as if we are children, to the cinematic Thoroughness, end of Boredom, end of self-reliance, of just who He is. He is our very deepest Knowledge, on display. He is our most Germane traits, embodied. He is our most special Experiences, met with a chuckle. Who, after all, was the Christ who cheered me? No top-heavy spook, but rather a Friend near and dear. We are Able to reflect on a world mastered by none, except by Him: who distanced Himself, that we might rediscover and bask in the privilege of a child’s mobile, of personal Discovery, of a special Anointing we never knew anyone would say we deserved.

Except for the Father. Except for the hands-off, now that we found Patient Religion, see already the gauntlet tossed back in your own court. Be all things to all people. Be friend and explorer most sublime. Be the one never to judge another’s need, never to dismiss them, but to counsel as the shared space is lit up with friendly banter, that hey, perhaps something nice in we ourselves helped inspire this portrayal of Christ. Or perhaps it was simply an experience we might have missed altogether, had we been more busy or wealthy in the world’s terms, what the world calls “responsibility”: we are at times too “responsible” to lay out in the reclined patient allowance of Jesus, who was anointed as He lay, who was Identified as He shared meal with the privileged and fashionable set.