Spiritual Conversations With Childrenنموونە

Listening to God Through our Children

Jesus spoke to his Community of Love offering thanks that the Father has revealed “hidden” things to infants, but they remain hidden from the rest of us. What is it that children know that adults do not? Likely he’s talking about many things, but maybe one is a delight in earthly—or earthy—things. 

Young children have not grown bored with the ordinary, but delight in the smallest ladybugs, dryer lint, and rocks. Just take a toddler on a walk and you’ll find yourself fishing all sorts of things out of their hands and mouths. They are eager to experience all that surrounds them with every dimension of their person. 

When my children were young, we walked down our graveled driveway to check the mail. Over and over for what seemed like hours to my older and weary soul followed their delight. They examined each rock, seeing each as an incalculable treasure. They were eager to show me every wandering line, every unremarkable sparkle, and every conjured imagination. When naming where we “saw God” just before bedtime, it was always in the ordinary and earthy. Big Ma’s peach jam, the cold wet nose of Lilly our dog, snowflakes, and bubbles in the bathtub. 

Children live in all the dimensions of their self. They interact with their world through their minds, feelings, bodies, and social context.

First, we need to reconnect with the dimensions of our self that as adults we have estranged. We may have become more mind and thought centered, and moved away from integration with our bodies. Our encounters with God may have become overly private, leaving out our community or social context. 

Second, observe children. Notice how they engage the world and God with the various dimensions of their person. Ask a child to teach you to pray as they do. Enable empathy and agency in a child by being vulnerable and sharing a glimpse of a struggle that you currently have. (Be sure that your struggle is appropriate for a child.) The universal experience of being left out is felt by adults and children. Share a bit of your story, and then ask the child if they have ever felt like you do. 

Notice how God speaks to you through the child, and notice how God comes alongside you. How could God be speaking through the child before you?