Lessons from Cooper...Already
Our first grandchild, Cooper was born 3 months ago, and I
find it interesting the lessons I’m learning from him, already. We kept
him overnight for the first time this past weekend. It was wonderful to
watch his energy and to see him squirm and wiggle, his body constantly moving as if trying to break
free and escape his current state of helplessness. When he’s with us, his bright blue eyes
constantly scan around the room, searching and exploring, it seems. He appears to be in total wonderment. Sometimes he settles his gaze into my face,
or more likely my wife Bonnie who lovingly holds him for hours and hours on
end. As she rocks him in her arms, she
constantly sings him silly songs, or gently calls his name, “Coooooper…I
lovvvvvve you;” then he’ll focus on her for just a moment and then he smiles, nearly
laughing, all the while continuing to flay his hands in the air, and kicking
his feet out every which way. For that brief moment, he seems to acknowledge
this love being offered to him. He seems
grateful, and maybe even a little amused, but then it’s off to other things like the
ceiling fan, the television, or a spot in the corner…a friend of ours claims
that corner is where his Guardian Angel is hovering about, keeping another pair
of eyes on him.
This got me wondering: what is he thinking? So, I did a Google search: “What do 3 month
old babies think?” And of course, no one
knows for sure, but some of the sites that made
the most sense to me indicated that the ever-developing babies’ brains are
basically checking out this incredible new world, with limited capacity and experience, to process it all. It’s obviously a dramatically different world
from the one they came from in their mother’s womb, just a few short months
back.
So, it seems to me, it would be kind of like taking a very
young child, maybe 3 to 4 years old, from an ancient time, say thousands of
years B.C. and plopping them into a modern suburban home. What would such a child think of something so
basic as 4 walls and a ceiling; bright lights from lamps; running water,
electricity, TV’s, …this list is exhausting as you can imagine, just as exhausted as would be the time
traveling child’s mind trying to process all of these strange images and
devices. So, I think of Cooper’s journey,
from the comfort of mom’s belly, into a strange new world in which we all find so
familiar.
Jesus tells us that Heaven is beyond our imagination. But, he also told folks, they were close to
it as well. One of my favorite images of
Heaven is comparing it to a baby in the womb. Just like Cooper in his mother’s womb,
there was a whole world outside of that place, with totally different sights, and
sounds. And yet, that world was close
enough to almost touch it. Sounds traveled from that outside world into the womb -Cooper heard sounds and voices of mom
and dad, coming from somewhere.
When Cooper was born, what a shock that must have been! That warm, dark, intimate, quiet place was
gone; out into a foreign world, with bright lights, cold hard surfaces, and
strange-beings, poking and prodding! Put
me back, he seemed to be screaming! But of course he couldn't be put back. He had entered a whole new and
wonderful world. With
loving parents, friends and family, he will come to know love and be loved. It’s
a different world, unimaginable from inside the womb; unimaginable even as these three months have passed by.
I like to think of present-life like being in the womb of
Heaven, or maybe even in God’s womb. There are many things that my mind cannot completely comprehend. I hear whispers from God, and I see glimpses
of God. I feel God’s presence in nature, in music, in love
of family, friends, and even kind strangers.
This makes me feel Heaven is so close, I can almost touch it. And if I consider the nearly infinite
vastness of space surrounding our universe, the light years of distance between the
known and the unknown, God must be in an adjacent world, right here in front
of me, or Heaven must be really far away. But, it doesn't feel that distant. God is too intimate for that.
No comments:
Post a Comment