Getting Back to My Roots...

Many years ago ( almost none of you know this ) I was married once before. Her name was Nancy Duffy. It all ended so suddenly. In a whirlwind romance ( so typical of those times ) we were married at 1 o'clock and it ended at 6 pm.
It ended because...her mother called her in for dinner. We were both six years old. But we had life figured out.
Despite all of the needs that children have, there is a certainty about children around 6 years of age that is strangely comforting. I remember being six and I remember when my kids were six. Even now when I hear from a friend of mine about their son who is around the great six year marker. I am still amazed at the way he sees the world. There is a wonderful
transparency and honesty to them that gives hope to those who watch them grow. Yes, they will learn to " hide their cards" from a hurtful world. But at some point the best pieces of their character that were only clues when they were six years old are the same things that draw people to them now. One the many programs that talk about the psychology of human relationship suggested that the intuitive aspects that make people seem attractive to each other in appearance, personality
and ways of communicating come from the childhood years. Should we all act like six year olds then ? Perhaps not. But Jesus indicated that we have to come to him as children in order to understand what He is all about. He also got pretty ticked at his own disciples for getting in the way when the six year olds ( children ) tried to get to Him. Charles Dickens was one of the few writers in Victorian England who wrote about and observed the poorest, most down-trodden families in the worst neighborhoods of London. Upon looking at a new baby born amidst the ugly squalor of one of the overcrowded tenements, Dickens declared "this baby is beautiful because he is fresh from God" . If that is true about childhood, it would do me well to remember my roots...