I just finished planting eight new pepper plants in our garden. Nancy looked at me like I was nuts when she arrived home the other day and saw them sitting on the sidewalk next to the garden but, as only a 'Papa' might be able to explain, I reminded 'Nana' that our granddaughters would be with us today and I wanted Cailin to help me in the garden. These are to be her contribution to the family dinner table, planted where the lettuce crop once stood. Together, we planted tomorrows delicacies and together we will tend them through the summer. I'm not sure what Cailin will learn from all of this, but I am looking forward to teaching her the fine art of working hand in hand with God in creation,while leading her towards the exquisite joy that dirty hands and a sweaty brow bring to the things one picks in the garden and places on the table.
Such are the holy moments of family and the sacred joys of a faith family. Each generation takes their place with the young ones among them and passes on the intricacies of intimate conversations with God, whether in the garden, in a field, in an office, or on the road between here and there. Ours is the privilege of shaping the moment with the wonders of our own experiences, with the possibilities that are limited only by our imagination, and ours is the responsibility of inviting, even encouraging a personal commitment to the endeavor, that what happens is more than a 'buying into a particular way of thinking' but, rather, is an evoking of a response born of a communal spirit finding a home in the One who is the dirt under the fingernails as well as in the Food upon the Table. It is an awesome notion, indeed, that God is capable of using an old Papa like me, a garden shovel, a pepper plant, and the fragrant soil of God's own creation to teach a young girl about love, shared labors, struggles, and joys, all of which are a part of life's flowing stream.
The question has never been, "Will Cailin and other children like her really want to learn what we have to teach?" History has shown us time and time again, the desire to experience and understand that which is bigger than ourselves and our limited place on earth is forever in the heart of humanity. The real question is, "If we don't teach our children, who will?" Because, you can bet on it, someone will meet their need and answer their questions . . . and if, in the questioning, in that moment of wonderment, we who are closest to our children do not speak up and articulate in word and action the love of God in Jesus Christ, then what they receive and decide to believe is as much what we have taught them in our silence as it is what has been told them by those who only see them as a pawns for their amusement and power.
So, pepper plants, rototillers, garden rakes, and garden shovels, mixed with a fair amount of fertilizer, hard work and a little bit of sweat, are the things which make for a teachable moment, a shared experience, and the baptismal love that washes the soul and feeds an emerging life. If in the course of my lifetime our granddaughter remembers nothing else about me than her old Papa helping her to plant some pepper plants on a June afternoon in the garden behind our home, I will know that she will hold close the knowledge that she is always loved, that the best labors are those which are shared, and the most wonderful of moments are the ones filled with laughter, love and dirty hands nurturing new life for all to share at the Table where God's family is fed.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Don
No comments:
Post a Comment