Mt 11:25-27 Childlike Wonder

Mt 11:25-27  Childlike Wonder

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At that time Jesus exclaimed:  “I give praise to you, Father, of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” 

Peter Keller was bored.  That’s the reason he gave for killing his wife, his child, and eventually himself.  He was bored…with life.      

But life is not boring; people are boring, and people, like Peter Keller, are boring when they don’t know how to live.  Peter Keller was selfish and selfish people are boring.  Mother Teresa was giving and giving people are surprising.  When you give, you create.  That never gets boring.  When you are selfish, you destroy.  That gets boring, and fast.

What should be our attitude towards life?  If I only had one word to sum it all up, the word would be:  wonder.

Every day we should have the facial expression of a dead person.  Yes, every day we should keep our eyes, as well as our mouths, wide open.  After all, the happiest people are surprised people, and surprised people imitate dead people. They don’t look like they have seen a ghost.  They look like they have seen God.  And hopefully, most dead people see God.

We consider it the stuff of science that an apple tree should grow an apple, and consider it the stuff of fairy tales that an apple tree would grow a peach.  But why?  Why is one not as much of a fairy-tale as the other?  Don’t both deserve our sense of wonder?

Is it so obvious that we should share a sun with other planets, but have just one moon to ourselves, and one planet to call home?  Just because we can explain what has already happened does not mean it had to happen.  Instead of complaining that the days are boring because they begin and end the same way, we should shout “Bravo!” and ask for an encore as appreciative audience does in the opera house.  We should be childlike and say “Do it again!” at the slightest hint of pleasure and the simplest sense of wonder.

A year ago I heard a talk given by a Catholic author named Joseph Pearce.  He mentioned how he was shocked that his favorite rock band, The Rolling Stones, would sing, “I can’t get no satisfaction.”  Wait a minute!  Didn’t these guys have everything the world could offer them?  Didn’t they have tons of money; tons of drugs; and tons of women at their disposal?  Why would they be singing “I can’t get no satisfaction”??? 

Whoa, something is wrong here!  No.  Nothing is wrong.  It is the truth.  Christ is the only one that satisfies the mind, heart, body and soul.  It’s time we give him a chance. 

I worry about our kids.  They are growing up way too fast.  They are losing their childlike heart at an alarming age and rate.  They have become rational and logical far too early in life.  Someone has been poisoning them.  I’m not exaggerating.  I will never forget going to a High School production of Peter Pan.  I was sitting next to a child.  When Peter Pan suddenly appeared, flying across the stage, I looked at the child and said, “Isn’t it amazing how Peter Pan is flying in the air?”  The child looked at me and said, “It’s the wires.”  I looked at him and said, “What?  What did you say?”  Again, he repeated himself, “It’s the wires.”  I told him, “The wires?  It’s not the wires, it’s the fairy dust!”  He shook his head in disagreement and stared at me as if I were some idiot and said, “I wasn’t born yesterday.  It’s not the fairy dust.  It’s the wires.”  I told him he was wrong.  When he nudged at his mother to get involved in the debate, she waved both hands at me as if to tell me, “This is your problem.”  He asked for an explanation.   I gave it to him.  I told him, “When Peter Pan wants to fly, he throws the fairy dust.  If he doesn’t throw the fairy dust, he doesn’t fly.  It’s the dust that gives the guys in the back the signal to pull the strings and help Peter Pan fly.  Get it!!!  It’s the fairy dust that makes him fly.  Don’t make me repeat myself again!” 

How sad it is when a child loses his sense of wonder.  How sad it is when an adult can't figure out that there is Someone hidden pulling all the strings.