September 16
Beloved families of Good Shepherd,
Peace be with you! This fall I am learning the art of spiritual listening with children in a class called “Spiritual Conversations with Children.” Yesterday’s lecture centered on listening to the spiritual lives of children through their artwork. After class was finished, I decided to invite a child in our community named Ezra to draw her inner picture of God and to tell me about her drawing. Ezra shared her drawing of God (see above) and shared these words with me:
“I drew Earth on God’s shirt because God is all around the earth, all the time, all at once. Earth is important because it’s where everyone lives. I put a tree right behind God because He’s taking a walk and trying to make sure everything that is growing is not getting chopped down. I drew God with a mustache because God has been around forever!”
One important way we can nurture the spiritual lives of the children in our care is to invite them to think about and draw their inner picture of God. Lacy Finn Borgo, author of Spiritual Conversations with Children, invited an 8-year-old child named Annie to draw her inner picture of God. Annie drew three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, playing the piano together and said, “God is like a musical chord. All three and all one.”
St. Ignatius of Loyola, a sixteenth-century Christian mystic, also imagined the Holy Trinity as a musical chord. St. Ignatius believed that our inner picture of God is important because it shapes how we pray and relate to God. The prophet Ezekiel describes his extraordinary inner picture of God sitting on a sparkling blue sapphire throne, glowing and surrounded by a beautiful rainbow of colors. Ezekiel sees and experiences God as holy, beautiful, and all-powerful. (Ezekiel 1:1-28)
Contemplative writer Thomas Keating also describes his beautiful inner picture of God: “Think of God in a very big way. And if you do, that’s too small! You can’t think of anything more wonderful than this God. And you can’t figure out anything about God without a special grace…God is so marvelously good, there is no word for it. So gentle. So considerate. So kind, so tender-so everything marvelous. That is God. And whatever you say is far less than it is.”
When I read this Sunday’s Gospel passage about Jesus’ Parable of the Workers the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), I pause and notice the phrase “I am generous” spoken by the landowner to his workers. The landowner in this story gave the same daily wages to the workers who arrived later in the day to work as he did to the workers who put in a full day of work.
This parable affirms my inner picture of God as infinitely generous in nature. I see God extending his love and generosity to all people. All of the workers in the vineyard experience the landowner’s generosity, grace, and goodness which is not limited by any human measurement of fairness. St. Ignatius of Loyola came to realize that “God is never outdone in generosity.”
This week I invite parents to pause for a moment, perhaps after dinner or before bed time, and invite your children to draw their inner picture of God. Then parents can ask their children one question: “Would you like to tell me about your picture?”. I hope this simple exercise will help to nurture your children’s prayer life and deepen their relationship with God.
This Sunday our church and day school families are invited to gather at Evan’s Orchard for Good Shepherd’s annual Family Fun Day, 3-5 pm! We’ll enjoy fellowship, apple picking, and a hayride. Register HERE.
We hope you will join us this Sunday for worship and for fellowship at Evan’s Orchard!
Many Blessings,
Patty