Essays
&
Reflections |
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The
Thing About Tarantulas is..., by Lindsey Strauch |
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Where
Hope Hides, by David Diggs |
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Out
of the Compound, by David Diggs |
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Security
without Walls, by Shelly Satran |
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Is
There Room? by David Diggs |
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Emptied
for Love, by Kent Annan |
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Pregnant
Woman Dies Outside Hospital Gates, a letter from
David Diggs |
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A
Little Change, Please,
by Kris Stoesz |
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Preemptive
Love by David Diggs |
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Our
Lives are Different Now, by Kris Stoesz |
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Seeing
Lazarus, by David Diggs |
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My
Name is Little Baby, by Alina Cajuste with
Bev Bell |
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Loving
the Terrorists by
David Diggs |
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Jeff's
Tap-Tap Letter by
Jeff Rogers |
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We
See from Where We Stand, by David Diggs |
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Two
Ways to the Top, by David Diggs |
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Food
for Thought
by
Coleen Hedglin |
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by
David Diggs
December, 2002
Favoring Girls,
by David Diggs
Christ’s
History, and Ours, by Gustavo Gutiérrez
Who
is Christmas for?, by David Diggs
A
Martyr's Reflections on Christmas,
words from
Oscar Romero
Is
There Room?, by David Diggs
The Cleansing
Touch, by Shelly Satran
Christmas
Bells, Wooden Bells, by David Diggs
Room for Christ,
by Dorothy Day
No Silent Night,
by David Diggs |
Yesterday
I played a little private game. I was on my way to the bank
and pushing my daughter in her stroller. She is nearly two
and very adorable. I know she is adorable by the way total
strangers react to her. When I walk down the street alone
how do people react? They walk right past me, never looking
my way, always absorbed in their own cares. But when I have
my daughter with me, people can’t keep their eyes off
of her. They smile at her and try to get her attention if
she’s not looking at them. When we stop at a crosswalk
waiting for a light to change, some people look down at her
and make goofy faces and funny noises to entertain her. If
she smiles at them, they light up. It’s love at first
sight.
So, yesterday, while walking up Connecticut Avenue in Washington,
D.C. with my daughter, I decided that I would play a little
game. I would start looking at people I passed on the sidewalk
as if they were as adorable as my daughter. I’d smile
at them and try to get them to smile back at me. There was
nothing complicated about this game. I simply tried to imagine
each person I passed as the beautiful child they must have
once been.
What started as a silly game, quickly turned into a spiritual
experience. As I started trying to see everyone as adorable
children, I was suddenly aware that God must be looking at
all of us this way. God must be able to see beneath all our
defenses and disguises and see us all as precious children.
As I began to sense God delighting in all of us, my mood went
from playful to giddy.
Several pedestrians who were walking the opposite direction
down the sidewalk would first look at my daughter and smile
and then look up at me beaming at them and quickly turn away.
A few would tepidly acknowledge my gleeful grin, but I could
see what they were thinking: “Beautiful kid. Too bad
her dad is wacko.”
Only two of the several dozen people I passed seemed to connect
with me. The first was an elderly woman moving slowly with
a walker. She beamed both at my daughter and at me. I think
we were both beautiful children in her eyes. I beamed at her
for it wasn’t difficult to see her as a lovely, sprightly
little girl. Outside she used a walker, but inside she was
skipping down the sidewalk.
The second person who connected with me was Charles, a homeless
man who sometimes hangs out in front of a local diner to ask
for money. Most people make an effort to pretend that Charles
doesn’t exist, even when he addresses them directly.
So he seemed a little thrown that I initiated the contact.
We ended up talking for a few minutes. He even offered me
some Halloween candy that someone had given him. Because I
was seeing Charles as a sweet child, I ended up forgetting
that he was homeless and poor. He just seemed like the nicest
kid on the block.
As Christmas approaches we contemplate the mystery of God’s
incarnation. That God comes to dwell among us at all is beyond
comprehension. But the fact that the Creator of All chose
to come as a child says to me that he wanted us to connect
with him, that God wanted to sneak past the defenses we have
built around our jaded hearts. Mary was frightened by a mere
angel of God who came to tell her that she would bear the
Christ. But when the angel’s all-powerful boss appears
as a vulnerable, helpless baby, how can she be afraid? She
can only marvel that she has been entrusted to love, nurture,
and defend the Maker of Heaven and Earth.
It may be, too, that God has a “preferential option”
for children, just like they say he has for the poor. Jesus
tells us that unless we become like little children, we can’t
enter God’s Kingdom, for the Kingdom belongs to children.
(Matt. 18:3 & 19:14)
Of course, Jesus did not remain a child. He grew up. But in
his adulthood he taught us that God still dwells among us
as a child. Remember when the twelve disciples were arguing
about who would be greatest in the Kingdom. Jesus took them
aside and told them, “If anyone wants to be first, he
must make himself last of all and servant of all.” Then
Jesus took a little child in his arms and told them, “Whoever
welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes
me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the One
who sent me.” (Mark 9:35-38) So, when we welcome a child,
we welcome God!
The
world that the baby Jesus was born into was not particularly
welcoming. There was no room for him, so he had to be born
in a stable and sleep in a manger. The world was not only
unwelcoming of the Christ child, it was downright hostile.
King Herod ordered the slaughter of all children aged two
and under in Bethlehem, trying to nip any threat to his power
in the bud.
How sad that, as Christmas approaches over two millennia later,
our world is still such an unwelcoming and dangerous place
for so many children. Each day roughly 15,000 children die
from hunger in our world. In this world children are not only
victims of our wars, but we recruit them to fight in our wars.
In the U.S., hundreds of thousands are lured or forced into
drug dealing, prostitution, and other criminal activity. Millions
in places like Haiti are forced to work in slave-like conditions
apart from their families. And hundreds of millions grow up
with no schooling and no hope of escaping the grinding poverty
that makes their lives a constant struggle for survival.
When we welcome a child, we welcome God. How different our
world would be if we could see in each child the presence
of God and if in each adult we could see a precious child
of God. My goofy game of walking around looking at people
like they were adorable children might not be so goofy after
all. It might be an exercise that prepares us for the Kingdom
of God, where we all are children and where God is present
among us as a child.
We are thankful for everyone who supports the efforts of Beyond
Borders to make our world more welcoming to Haiti’s
children. We invite you this Christmas to open your heart
even wider to children young and old and to rejoice in our
God who appeared to us (and still appears to us) as a child.
Please consider our Christmas
Gifts for a Lasting Difference.
Thank you, and
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