Dear TSJ Friends,
As a child I heard and read Bible stories, nursery rhymes and fairy tales one way and now I “hear” them very differently as an older person.
As one who has now lived a lot of years, I can more readily relate to the wise King Solomon of biblical fame. After all of the wisdom the young Solomon had asked for and received from God, his royal power made him vulnerable to greed. He then made poor decisions causing him to slip off the righteous path and squander his gift.
His story can be all of our stories in some ways. We too have gifts from God that we squander due to wanting more perfection, more recognition and more success.
And when Solomon grew old and looking back on his life, he wrote down lots of wisdom as recorded in the book of Ecclesiastes. Most of us are familiar with the words, “There is a time (season) for everything under the sun.” He had joys and he had regrets. I have been reading it with with more understanding than ever.
I have recently realized I am in a season of wonder, of listening and watching. And am re-reading timeless stories of wisdom and truths in scriptures and literature. At the same time, I am also learning by observing toddlers and preschoolers who are just beginning their earth journeys! I have one foot planted in the past and one planted in the squealing and playful noise of children on the playground. I am a grandma.
PLAYGROUND LESSONS AND WISDOM
The best classroom for understanding the human journey has been on the playground watching children interact with each other and adults. I thought this was true when I was a young school teacher and it is even more true for me now. As I watch them I am connecting the dots with my own growing up, my own journey as a mom and my own spiritual journey of ego (self protective) identity vs. soul (peace and truth) identity.
Being an observer on the playground is like seeing things through a magnifying lens. I see the power and influence of parent and grandparent shepherds as they respond to their child’s early stages of discovery, mishaps and recovery. What a life long process this is for us humans.
You know what I can see clearly now? Each child passionately wants to be noticed, heard and affirmed. “Watch me” and “See me!” are natural demands of children. Yet many of us feel guilty for wanting affirmation or to be special. Now I see it is as being human and good.
The song, “Amazing Grace” comes to mind as it expresses the truth that : “Once I was blind, but now I can see” . . . because of God’s grace.
And for me, that means I am discovering that my older and wiser self can embrace and shepherd my fearful and shamed younger self.
That is almost as much a relief as finding my lost cell phone. It is perhaps the most important human connection of all… the connection of our inner selves.
And you know what I am discovering about that?
SHIFT HAPPENS!
Grace and willingness to face and forgive our life’s disappointments and failures keeps us growing! It shifts our perceptions and heals our misinterpretations of God and life.
While shifts can sometimes occur quickly from a single life altering experience for some people, for most of us, our shifts toward goodness, truth, confidence and courage are gradual and incremental.
We often “know better” long before we can consistently “do better” in areas where we get stuck and discouraged. Facing our personal addictions is one example of this.
I have known I need some healing of my inner vision lately. In rereading a bible story recently (John’s gospel – Chapter 9), I was inspired by a story about a blind man.
This story is about mud and Jesus and of course about my own spiritual blindness. It sounded so up-to-date it startled me into remembering how timeless stories can be!
MUD, JESUS AND ME (US)
When I was a little girl I loved when our cousins would come to the farm for a visit. I remember with glee playing outside with them and making mud pies. In my young farm life these were rare moments of pure play.
And playing with mud delighted me. It had to be the right amount of water, dirt, or sand mixed together carefully in the old pie tins that mom let us use. The imaginary “pie crust” would be patted down just right and sometimes the “pie filling” would be little pebbles of various colors. The dirt felt cool, squishy, muddy and malleable. Somehow making mud pies felt so real and productive. (Watching some little girls on the playground lately pretending to bake for their mothers has revived these memories.)
I love stories about the earth and nature and animals and people. Perhaps that is why my eye caught a phrase “A man called Jesus made mud” when reading the story in John.
SO ONE SABBATH DAY . . . 
Jesus and his disciples were walking along when they “noticed” a blind man known to be a beggar. He was not quiet about his blindness so it was not hard to notice him. In fact, people actually tuned him out – until Jesus passed by.
The disciples asked the Teacher (Jesus), “Whose fault is it that he was born blind? His own fault or his parents?”
It sounds like blaming parents or the marginalized has been around a long time, doesn’t it?
Thankfully, Jesus said neither the parents nor the blind man were to blame. He said it happened so that he [and we] could see God’s goodness revealed through his healing.
Then Jesus made a little paste of mud (clay) mixed with his saliva and covered the man’s eyes with the mud and sent him to the healing pool to wash it off. The blind man washed off the mud and was jubilant. He could see!
Was it a time of rejoicing? For him, yes. But for others? No!
The trouble this stirred up was as subversive as many current newsmaking stories. When chased down by the “reporters” of that day and grilled with the who, what, where and how questions, the blind man could not answer who this healer was or where he came from or where he went. He could only say…. “All I know is . . . “a man named Jesus made mud, put it on my eyes and now I can see.” What a powerful statement.
Did they care about that? No.
They were trying to condemn Jesus in part for working on the sabbath. And of course there was more to the story. They even tracked down his parents when they did not believe the healed man’s story. The parents verified he was blind but did not know how he got healed or where the healer went. They said, “go ask him yourselves.”
So the reporters grilled the blind (now seeing) man a second time!
You can almost hear the healed man saying, “I keep telling you ….”
But they harassed him so much Jesus heard about it and came back to see him. Questions were asked back and forth. An acquaintance was established with the one who not only gave him physical eyesight but now also spiritual sight. He met the “who” that was his Healer. He went away in faith and with a full heart
SUMMARY
We all are on a a shared human and spiritual journey. I see more and more clearly why the Good Shepherd says we must become like children in order to “see” his kingdom of love, forgiveness, unbridled joy, creative energy and a confidence in being shepherded.
For the blind man in the story, it only took one experience, one encounter with the healer to have a major shift of faith in his life!
For most of us it takes a life time of small shifts.
Thanks for being faithful friends while I wash the mud off my eyes again and again.
May we shepherd each other’s hearts as we play in the pastures of life this week.
And as always, thank you for your emails, texts and phone conversations.
With love,
Margie and Solomon ( who thought he should wear his glasses for this post!)
