Along the journey towards the greater, there are many small, daily steps to better understand oneself, God, and others. This is one of my “daily steps”.
Today I lent my twins flashlights. They needed something for show and tell that started with “L”. I had to remind them a few times that the “light” coming from the “flashlight” fit the parameters.⠀
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On the way to school, they asked each other so many questions about the flashlights. “If mommy turned off all the lights in the car maybe we could shine our light and see lightening hidden in the clouds!” And, in turn, one built on the other’s questions: “What if mommy turned off all the lights in the city and then we could turn on our flashlights and see all the planets!” ⠀
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It is fascinating to see their minds work right now because nowhere in this conversation did they turn to me and ask if any of it could actually happen. They never asked for clarification on any of their “facts” about the universe- they just kept wondering bigger and bigger.⠀
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They sat and loved the questions.⠀
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Poet #raniermariawilke once wrote in a letter to a young poet:⠀
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“I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”⠀
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There are so many questions these days that we wrestle with in all areas of life… what would it look like to love the questions a little more – to shine our flashlights on all the possibilities and let the light linger.⠀
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That is my prayer for all of us today. ⠀
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