these days II

these days, as we drive past a playground, she laughs and giggles with delight.

the church and the poor with tony campolo

In the playroom

Thunderclap!
“More?” she said…
But I’m not God.

Sweetest scent.
“More?” I said…
But I’m not God.

Childhood books,
“More?” she said…
And so I read.

Material memories,
“More?” I cried.
Fate is suffused.

3 things to say

I
As I bent down to wash off Maia’s messy dinner hands and dinner face, she wrapped her arms around me and spoke beautiful words. She spoke them softly and confidently—although not as if they weren’t a sudden epiphany, “wuv wu”. And I nearly lost it… finishing the clean up through fog filled eyes.

II
…and they all waited for her up on the sidewalk. Kelli unloaded her from the car and sent her up the steps. Then the frenzy began. Her four friends were simply delighted to see her. They all jumped and squealed, running circles around each other. I think child-like faith must look something like that.

III
As I bowed my head to pray with Maia before dinner last night, I heard a strange sound. Suddenly she was speaking a series of “umms” and “um-hums” as I offered thanks for our meal. Wanting to take part in things, Maia has—apparently—learned what it means to “agree in prayer”.

these days

These days she looks at us with searching intensity while we explain to her the nuances of life (the way of discipline or the reason playtime has to wait). And she expresses her delight at the little things with shotgun delivery. “CAR!” “PuzzlePuzzle?” and randomly, while sitting at the dinner table, she’ll point appropriately and exclaim, “MOMmys… DADdys...,” the plural apparently added on just for good measure.

Luther's sanctification

“This life is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness; not health, but healing; not being, but becoming, not rest, but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished, but it is going on; this is not the end, but it is the goal; all does not yet gleam with glory, but all is being purified.”
Luther (from: John Theodore Mueller, Christian Dogmatics (1934), p. 389):