Our children have learned the Our Father (the Lord's Prayer), and can recite it. This makes me happy. Jesus taught the disciples when they asked the Lord to teach them how to pray:
"This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one." (Mt 6:9-13)
God is not a taboo topic in our house. We realize our kids's brains are like sponges at this age, so we want to take advantage of it as much as possible to fill their heads with good things and not bad things. We try to limit TV to Veggie Tales and relatively benign kids shows, and I try not to play my DMX cds when the kids are around or in the car. We read children's bible stories at night before bed We are trying to 'normalize' prayer and curiosity about God so that it is not an anomaly kind of thing the way it was for Deb and I growing up. It takes some intentionality, which is a little awkward at first, but soon becomes the new normal.
David is a curious boy, and gets into existential mode from time to time. The other night he asked Deb with a note of panic, "Who is going to go to Heaven first?"
"We don't know that answer, David, only God knows" Deb told him.
"What if all of you go to Heaven before me??" he replied nervously.
Before she had a chance to reply, he added,
"Our family is small. Can we have a bigger family? Maybe a brother?"
She was a little surprised.
"Well, let's pray about it, bring it to God in prayer."
"God, can you give us another baby?"
The feast of the Annunciation was Saturday, which commemorates the visit of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary in Lk 1:26-38 in which she is told she will be the mother of God. The fate of all humanity hinged on Mary's 'yes' is something to pondered and awed by, since, theologically speaking, she had the free will to say the unthinkable 'no' to God's plan for her life--carrying the Son of God in her womb. But she did say yes, and worthy of honor and veneration. "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." A virgin conceives--literally, the definition of the impossible.
The angel Gabriel assures her when she responded with wondrous incredulity ('how can this be, since I am a virgin?'. "Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age," he tells her "and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God." (Lk 1:36-37) The final line in the episode of the annunciation is short and stark: "then the angel left her" (v. 38). After the comfort and reassurance of the angel, she is then alone with the precious cargo she is carrying. She seeks comfort with her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant with John the Baptist.
Expanding our family has been the talk du jour between Deb and I lately, but to hear it come from David so innocently definitely gave us pause. The thought of making the jump from 2 to 3 is a little intimidating, not to mention the various risks and fears. The assurance from Gabriel to Mary gives us comfort; after experiencing miscarriage, it is taking some trust and hope for us that this would be God's plan for our family. We are resigned to whatever his will is, but the temptation to fall back on controlling and living in fear and non-openness is always there. Mary is the perfect model for us, for her response without hesitation--"let it be done to me as you have said," resigns herself to the divine will in docility and trust. If we don't trust God, who can we trust? We have no other recourse, for He is the author of life. His promises are true; he is worthy of trust. All praise be to God most high, who gives and takes away...blessed be His holy name!"
"Nothing is impossible with God."
(Lk 1:37)