Continually remade

“Certainly Adam and Eve in Paradise had not more sweete and curious apprehensions of the world than I when I was a child… So that, without much ado I was corrupted, and made to learn the dirty devices of this world, which now I unlearn, and become as it were a little child again, that I may enter into the kingdom of God.”

-Thomas Traherne; 17th-century mystic

Isn’t this how it works? Do you remember how alive you felt when you were a kid? How vivid everything was? And then, at some point, life happens. As a dear friend so wisely quipped, “Life pummels us.”

Just take Christmas Day as an example…

As a kid, Christmas morning was heaven!! We hadn’t yet been bridled with the responsibilities of making sure that Christmas goes off without a hitch. We were merely receiving it. Rejoicing in it.

Fast-forward 20, 30, or 40 years and Christmas is an insane pressure cooker of expectations. If you have kids of your own, every Christmas is a reminder of how fast they grow up (this was Rory’s first Christmas that she knew the ‘truth’ about Santa Claus - SO SAD!). And then we see our kids lose their innocense just the way we did. Ugh…

So… Let’s play a game of ‘what-if’ for a second…

What if the story about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden - and the subsequent ‘fall’ - is not necessarily a historical depiction of what happened in a land long ago and far away… But is rather a poetic reality of what happens to each of us throughout our lives?

And then (to take this thought experiment to another level)… What if the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus points to a redemptive reality of what it’s like to die to self to re-enter that childlike heaven and kingdom of God?

This is merely one dimension of many, of course (and a simplistic one at that). But perhaps there’s something here. Something to chew on, at least.

What I do know is this…

The Spirit is alive and active, continually remaking you into the child of God that you are, were, and will forever be.

Amen.

In Christmas Joy,
Jonas+