We recently heard this story. A couple was seeking custody of a little boy they had cared for as foster
parents. The child had been horribly abused, physically and emotionally, sent
to bed each night in a small dog’s cage where he had to sleep huddled and
cramped with his little knees under his chin. The foster father said that even
when he and his wife put the boy to bed- in a real bed, his own bed- he
continued to sleep huddled up, his knees angled up and taut. The man said
that he and his wife would sneak in at night on tip-toe to relax the boy’s
knees, ease them down gently, insistently so that he could relax and sleep more
peacefully. But it would take many nights of repeating that gentle, steady
gesture before the boy could finally trust and lie down and rest in peace and
security.
When
terrible things happen to little kids, they usually believe it’s their fault.
Even though it’s not true, their logic is: “If I weren’t naughty, this wouldn’t
have happened.” Perhaps we too think we know what we deserve. We are sinners
after all, we’ve messed up and we deserve it (whatever it might be).
This
morning Jesus shows us a different way. He takes the child, the little child
within, the place where we are vulnerable and frightened; he embraces
this little child, “putting his arms around it.” Then amazingly he identifies
himself as the child. Jesus is the small, vulnerable one.
Only
love, God’s forgiveness, can ease the rigidity of our fear and knee-jerk
responses. Only the warm embrace of Christ Jesus can ease and heal and teach
us not to scrunch and clench and hide. We have “received a Spirit of adoption,
through whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God.” The Spirit of Christ empowers us to be
strong, secure enough as the Father’s beloved ones so that we can trust, even
relax and fall back into that love and then go and do likewise- forgiving as we
have been forgiven. Not because nothing has happened, too much has happened- I
have often made a mess of things, I have hurt, and I have been hurt. But
forgiveness renews and recreates possibility, even restores lost innocence.
