Like a Child

.…………….

A song.

A song made up of one word…a name.

The Name.

Jesus.

From the back seat of the car, 
my daughter was singing,
saying the Name clearly for the first time.
A name among words she’d struggled 
for so long to say,
now sung out,
fully intelligible.

A mother’s joy at a child’s understanding.
The knowledge that it didn’t matter
if it was pronounced correctly.

He knows who she sings this song for,
the one who loves her more than any other,
the one who created her,
and has called her to live fully in His redemption;
to live free.

Music is powerful,
but a name…
the Name is and was, and is to come.

It’s the Name she’ll call out when she grows and her heart is broken,
in the moments when all that remains are shards of what was,
shards that pierce her tender soul,
waiting for healing
and to be weaved back together,
only this time stronger than before.  

Joy in hearing her sing His Name for the first time is greater,
given that speech has eluded her;
an ongoing struggle.

Not that it matters,
He knows her heart.
He knows who she is singing for,
no matter the sound.

A small voice breaks through morning silence
in the hushed waiting room.

A song.

A name.

The Name.

Jesus.

Eyes shoot blank stares at a little girl.
Eyes made uneasy, in the moment of a song lifted up.
The same eyes that on any other morning
seek out the same little girl,
hoping for a smile.
As if her smile, freely given,
would light a grey winter morning.

Those same people,
now silenced by a song.

Any other song would’ve had a lesser impact,
no impact, perhaps.

Not this song, though.

The Name
sung by a little girl,
with joy and a grin at just being able to sing;
brings stillness to the room.

No inhibition.
No shame.
A simple song reflecting the happiness in her heart.

The freedom of being a child.

What if?

What if we, like a child, stepped out of the walls we erect around us,
the invisible shelters we construct
to hide in our own lives?

What if we, like a child, sang unhindered, smiling, unashamed?

What if we chose to lift our eyes to another,
to listen,
to enter into someone else’s pain
and offer up whatever help we could?
Not turning away,
out of discomfort or social norms.

Children are like that.

Someone cries,
a child doesn’t look away.
They lean in,
ask why,
and what’s wrong
and try to make it better.

What if?

What if we became like little children?

Then, joy would be ours.

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 18:3

Jesus replied, Have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?  Matthew 21:16

 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.  Philippians 2:9-11 

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