In today’s gospel Jesus says to Philip “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”
When my children were very young they asked me, “Who or what is God?”
I sent a quick prayer to Jesus to give me the insight to explain to my 6 and 7 year old who God was, is and forever will be. Then I continued our conversation with great enthusiasm. I asked my daughter to bring me a large flat sheet from our linen closet. We then spread it over our dining room table.
I explained that the sheet represented God. For God is in all things, seen and unseen. His spirit is in every living creature and all things known and unknown to us. His creations are boundless and includes air, land, sky, sea and far beyond. I then proceeded to cut a corner off from the sheet and handed it to my son. His eyes were full of wonder as I explained that this small piece of material represented him. Next to that cut I sliced another piece for my daughter and told her the same thing. Above where both pieces had been connected I cut a piece for myself explaining how we were all bound together.
We are all pieces of one God. A God so vast our human hearts and minds cannot fathom His wisdom and power. God and Jesus, who is God in human form resides in each of us and each living thing is His wondrous creation. We are all forms of His extraordinary love.
My son then asked “Mom, what about the bad people?” My response seemed simple “Sweetheart, those are God’s wounds and we must do all we can to help them heal.”
It is most difficult for young minds to conceive the idea that we are in the Father and the Father is in us. Yet, Jesus believed and so must we. If we journey inside ourselves where only God and we can go, quiet the outside influences that call us each day, we can hear God speaking to only us. This is the voice we heard before our birth, continually throughout our lives and we will hear as God calls each of us home. Each of us is an important piece of God’s creation. Jesus is not only our Savior but our teacher. Let not one of us disappoint our teacher.
Penelope Powers
