A group of Rabbi's had finished their semester of study when one Rabbi suggested that they celebrate with wine. He would pay for it, but no one offered to go make the purchase.
The Grand-Rabbi, the elder in the group, said, "just hand me the money, I have a young boy who will be glad to go." Much later their teacher returned, and it became obvious to them all that the Rabbi himself had gone for the wine.
There is much wisdom in staying in touch with the inner child inside each of us. Perhaps God, better than anyone else, sees that.
Recently I had the thought that God is a Grandfather! He looks at us like little children he wants to spoil with love. Not only that, he sees our awesome potential that we struggle to grasp.
I've had the wonderful privilege of mentoring a young writer over the past two years. Seeing her unlimited potential, the promise of young dreams and absolute enthusiasm in the face of reality is inspiration to me.
I have looked at this student's evolving gift and felt a little like God the Father must feel when he sees our gifts and tries to nudge us and encourage us to use our talents. God always sees us as more than we are.
We can accomplish great things with our God, since he infuses us with the Holy Spirit and empowers us to actually create! God chooses to see us through the filter of love which romanticizes our potential and minimizes our failings.
Our great challenge is to "grow more childlike in faith, younger in service to others, more playful and trusting with each other and with our God This is what we do together as the people of God" (From "Becoming Child-like Again" by Charles Rush).
One way to become more child-like would be if we could live our life backwards, as one writer put it: "We would die first and get that out of the wayWe'd get kicked out [of an old age home] when we were too youngget a gold watch, and go to work. We'd workuntil we were young enough to enjoy our retirement.
"We'd go to college and learn to party until we were ready for high school; then we'd go to grade school and become a little kida little baby, go back into the womb, and spend the last nine months of our life floating[And if I were telling the story, we would go back to God in innocent love]."
But we have only this one chance to live, and as Erma Bombeck wrote just before her death, "If I Had My Life to Live Over", "I would have invited friends overeven if the carpet was stained I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about the grass stains
"When my child kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, 'Later. Now get washed up for dinner'... There would have been more I love yous, more I'm sorrys, but mostlyI would seize ever minute, look at it and really see it, live it, and never give it back."
