Children's Song
We live in our own world,
A world that is too small
For you to stoop and enter
Even on hands and knees,
The adult subterfuge.
And though you probe and pry
With analytic eye,
And eavesdrop all our talk
With an amused look,
You cannot find the centre
Where we dance, where we play,
Where life is still asleep
Under the closed flower,
Under the smooth shell
Of eggs in the cupped nest
That mock the faded blue
Of your remoter heaven.
R S Thomas, (Collected Poems, 1945-1990, page 56.)
In around 80 words Thomas deconstructs adulthood as a different planet, a different discourse, a lost capacity for imaginative immediacy, a diminshed sense of life's vivid colours and wondering mindset. When Jesus said unless you become as children you cannot see the Kingdom of God, perhaps amongst other things he meant that unless you retain the power to see, somehow or other prevent an occlusion of vision, resist the seductive power of the analytic in order to see the reality of what just is, unless you can do that, you will never see the miracle of mustard seed, the marvel of yeast, the outrageous humanity of the Samaritan para-medic.
No wonder Jesus told the adult disciples whose description and behaviour match some of the above paragraph, to "let the children come and don't chase them away – they are the true heirs of the Kingdom". And likewise little wonder he took a child and placed her in the midst of them and delivered the first children's address – to a group of obtuse adults, far too serious for their own good, and addicted to conclusions too quickly jumped to!
And R S Thomas was too good a priest not to know that though hands and knees are an adult trick to make children think we are just like them, the children aren't fooled. Neither is God. Amongst the things we put away when we grow up is that innocent take it for grantedness, that looks on the world and wonders, and never even realises that wonder is a gift you use or lose.
Oh Lord of mystery and miracle,
redeem our so grown up view of the world,
and renew our old minds to think new thoughts.
Help us
to notice the extraordinary ordinariess of our lives,
to pay attention to the wonder of things,
to recover the fun and freedom of play,
and to take what is given us for granted,
but also with gratitude.
Holy Spirit
renew our imagination,
refresh our emotions,
reset our ambitions,
revive our hopes,
restore our energy,
release our laughter,
recreate our world,
resurrect our lives,
in the power of the Risen Lord,
Amen. ( J Gordon)
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