I remember when our children called us with some exciting news and then spent 10 minutes describing for us the first steps of our 1-year-old grandchild. He could walk! Later I realized how bizarre we might have sounded to an eavesdropper. Most people can walk. What was the big deal?
It struck me that childhood provides a quality of specialness that nearly vanishes for the rest of life. Thinking about our treatment of children gave me further appreciation for the fact that God chooses the word picture of “children” to describe our relationship with Him. In this week’s Torah portion God says, “You are children of the Lord your God …”A children of God, each of us has infinite value in His eyes. I imagine God views each halting step forward in everybody’s spiritual “walk” with the eagerness of a parent watching a child take that very first step.
Perhaps when the secrets of the universe are finally revealed, we will learn an underlying purpose of watching children grow. It may be that God has granted us these times of specialness to awaken us to His infinite love. Once we feel God’s infinite love we can respond to it with loving God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might.
The new month of Elul,
which we announced this Shabbat, and this bond of love between the Holy One and
us, encourage us to prepare for our High Holy days and become the people we
truly want to be as we continue on our life’s journey.
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