Infants, toddlers and the spiritual life

     
One of the greatest tragedies of our times have got to be the countless children who have been denied the opportunity of having any siblings.  Apart from the physical bonds that come from this, it will also deny them a great spiritual reflection that can only come from spending time with children. Being the last of five children myself, I didn't have this opportunity of having a younger sibling, but the lessons that I have learned lately while spending time with my two year old nephew have left me awe struck and has opened my eyes to an expedient strategy by the devil to make sure that the spiritual component of watching children grow is denied to many. I am extremely thankful to God for my parents and siblings, and though I am fully content with my place as the last born, I have lately thought what it would have been like to be the first born and watch all the rest being born and develop through all the inevitable stages that accompany human development. I guess I will never find out what it would have been like, and I will leave that to those who have younger sibling to answer while I move on to my findings of late. Maybe
I would have missed the lesson all together, but now that I am more reflective, God has given me the opportunity with my nephew.
   This thought has been lingering in my mind ever since he was born and the times I have spent with him, and the way God has used this in dealing with my spiritual life is worth noting. The way kids behave and relate to their parents, siblings and those around them is a sure reflection of how we relate to God, Others in the body of Christ and our neighbors in general. I can write endlessly on certain specific things that I have observed from children that have a similar relation in the spiritual life but time compels me not to.
    On the positive side, the innocence of children, their great affection and simplicity have made me realize why Jesus said that "unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven." However, their close attachments to whatever they have and their self concern sometimes even peppered with manipulative ways awoke in me why St. Paul on the other side called for spiritual maturity when he said "While I was a child, I talked like a child, and acted like a child, but now that I am old, I have left childish ways behind." The question remains, how do we reconcile this two things without collapsing them into each other. My best approach would be to follow something I heard from the preachings of a bishop who said that "we are called to be childlike, but not childish."  The fact remains that we are endlessly in need of grace through out our lives to remain childlike towards God while advancing in spiritual maturity at the same time. Just like a child grows and leaves certain things behind, we too go through the same process in our spiritual life, but the process is quite similar. Let me walk you into a scenario
    As I pulled back from the driveway, my nephew started crying hysterically and calling her grandmother  from whom I had just picked him up from, to take him to his other grandmother. For the next 10 minutes before he fell asleep, he was inconsolable and as much as I tried, he couldn't stop crying so I just kept quite and let things run their course. Then the Lord brought it to my attention how often I have acted in such manner with my dealings with Him. How often I have thrown a spiritual fit. Going forward with little or less cooperation. Oh how terrible. But in those few moments I came to understand something. From my nephew's perspective, he was being led to the unknown and his attachment to his current situation couldn't be easily broken. I on the other side knew where we were going and knew that I was taking him to a place just as good and all would be well. Eventually, his joy returned and he enjoyed his now current situation just as much.  In the spiritual perspective, we often become disoriented from our attachments and often throw a fit when God asks us to leave our comfort zones and move to a different situation. Its unfortunate how often we've done things begrudgingly.  This could be anything from our attachment to sinful behaviors which we have become comfortable in to attachments to even good things which though good, we seek them as an end and become content in them. Both situations involve pain whenever we leave them behind, but we later realize God has prepared a better place for us in there stead and leaving them behind, we find a more pure and deeper joy.
      Maybe as my nephew becomes older, he will learn that his uncle will only put him in a good situation. As often as we repeat this process, he will eventually learn that the end results are never bad and with this, he will learn to trust in the process and eventually mature into it and although the pain of separation from his situation may still be there, the response will be different. It remains the same in the spiritual life. When we are "spiritual infants," our attachments prove painful whenever God removes us from them so as to bring us to a different situation. Eventually however, we learn that God always bring us to a better situation than what we had and this grows into trust. The seeds of trust mature into docility and abandonment to His will. Although the pain in the process may remain, we learn to stop putting up resistance. We choose to do what he asks us freely and willfully since we have come to learn that He always has the best in mind for us.
     In the 40 minutes that I spent in the car with my nephew, I was both a teacher and a student. A teacher in the sense that I was teaching my nephew that in our natural life we are often called to leave behind what we know and who we know to go into the unknown. I was also a student of the Holy Spirit as He taught me how this related to the spiritual life and how we are called to be detached from our familiar so that we can walk with God. In the end, I think God managed to show me that I am probably still a spiritual two year old.
     The devil is well aware of how many hidden lessons lie behind infants and that's why he has worked so hard to make sure that people despite children and see them as bothers. This reality is becoming more evident with the rising number of abortions, contraception and breakdown of families. Many children may never get a chance to be around a child either their own or a sibling if this continues. Kids forces people to slow down and take their eyes off of  themselves. As long as we are self focused, we miss seeing the evidence of God's work in our lives. In the family life, the call to self denial brings us to reflection and in this we find God. Nothing I can think about makes someone forget himself more than spending time with a child. They don't give you time to think about yourself and it's in this situation that we often find God. Oh Lord keep them and save our families.

Prayer: Oh Lord give us the fruit of detachment so that we can allow you to lead us into spiritual maturity.