I love God, whoever he is, and I’d really like to get closer to him. I’ve been thinking about how one of the simplest ways to get close to a woman is to be good to her children. To be kind and gentle and to pay close attention the things that make them gentle and to pay close attention to the things that make them special. To try to see her children the way that she sees her children. And how God mad us in his image. How he is the mother and father of all of us. So I wonder if that would be the best way to get closer to him too. By being kind and gentle to his children and noticing all of the things that make them special. So many of us spend our time trying to find God in books, but maybe the simplest way to God is directly through the hearts of his children.
I read this and my soul said “YES!”
I don’t know a lot but I know that when I am kind to one of the So Loved of God (John 3:16) she smiles. I feel this when I look the homeless person in the eye, when I include the person normally excluded, when I reach out despite my own fear, exhaustion, or indifference to listen to the story of another. The Divine leans in and says “Yes…love THAT one…right now.”
I feel the opposite when I judge or express dismay towards one of the So Loved. When I gossip or speak unkindly…which I sometimes do. When I do not have the patience to hear them out and wait for them to express their point. Or when I just transfer my invisibility to others onto someone else and treat them as if they aren’t even there.
I am not a mother. But I know the way my heart feels when someone asks me about my nephews or about my dear friends. The people who’s very breath is in tune with my own…they are the ones that I most want to talk about and the ones I most want the world to be kind to. These are the souls with whom my soul is knit…and when you are good to them, it is as good or better than if you were good to me.
No surprise that God is the same about her love for her beloveds.
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these…” (Matthew 25:40)