The order of things

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. — John 1:1

Do you carry your nine-year-old from the car to the house if it’s dark and she falls into a deep sleep on the long car ride home? Do you kiss your twenty-four-year-old son goodnight when he comes home for a weekend visit?

We all know kids are supposed to grow up, not remain in infant care forever. Then again, there are exceptions to this rule now and again. After all, love is love. And love needs to be expressed when we carry a kid we shouldn’t carry or kiss a grown child before bedtime.

I’m speaking to the order of things, the sequence of life which began long before sleeping children in a car and adult children who come home to the nest for a day or two. There’s a plan in place. This plan is God, and God is the Word. The Word is the order of the universe as we know it, and boldly we can say that we understand this order—if only in part (or every now and then).

Trust the order. Find comfort in it. Sure, we challenge how things should go every now and then. We also find it challenging the ways things are going every now and then. This is who we are. This is who God is, too.

The Word, which existed before we can fathom, speaks each day. I hear God saying you can carry your child (or an aging parent) as long as it is safe for both of you. As for goodnight kisses? Ah, they should never stop.

PRAYER: God, You know more than any of us that Your Word is love. On this planet where we nest, help us express Your love in our words and actions every single day. Amen.