Tuesday, May 25

At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”
—Matthew 11:25

Our educational system, our work world, our political life thrives in an environment of growing intelligence, where we are programmed to increase our knowledge and understanding. We are taught to look up to those who have achieved a high degree of insight and acumen, and to model our lives after such people.

When it comes to our relationship with the Holy One, we apply the same principles as we do in every other arena of our lives. We seek to approach the Holy One with logic and common sense. We try to get the ear of heaven by our cleverness, our carefully thought-out plans, our well-articulated prayers, our deeply developed logic.

But heaven touches the rim of our lives where we seldom venture. There at those unknown boundaries, God calls us to step back in time, to re-enter a space that has become unfamiliar and strange to us during our growth into mature adulthood. We are asked to become again the children who had few pre-conceived ideas, little well-formed logic, limited understanding, scant wisdom, abundant curiosity, and blind faith.

There in that place that exists as only a fragment of our known memory, the secrets and mysteries of heaven are revealed to us. There in that place we are invited to be as open as a blank page in an empty journal waiting for the writing of the heart. 

In the tenderest motion, the Holy One scratches the words of heaven's love, and as inquisitive children, we are surprised by what we are able to read.

O God, let me drop the mantle of my mental acuity long enough to read the images of your love on my simple soul.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2004.