When do we stop being children? Is it when we become teenagers? When we turn 21? When we have children of our own? Is it individual? Is it relative? Is it real?
Can we really ever stop being a child? Are we not always someone’s child? Does becoming an adult, or taking on the label of an adult, magically mean we have everything figured out? Does it mean we no longer need protecting from the Boogie Man? Does it mean we no longer need others to tell us everything is going to be okay when we are scared?
No. It doesn’t.
You’ve heard the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” I would like to pose the thought that we are always children, that there is no magic number, no magic achievement, no invisible cocoon that transforms us into an adult. Adults are just big children. And I still believe it takes a village to nurture all children, young and old.
We need each other.
It takes a village to support, encourage, nurture and nourish one another. We are designed for social interaction, social kindness, and social love. We are here to celebrate one another’s triumphs and mourn one another’s losses. We are here to chase away one another’s fears.
But somehow we forget that. We lose sight of each other because we get caught up in our own dramas, our own insecurities, and our own worlds. But that is not the true way of a child. That is the way of separation.
And separation is a lie.
We can’t be separated from one another just like we can’t not be someone’s child. It’s an impossibility for our lives to be isolated from one another. Separation is seeing and believing the wrong things about ourselves and about each other. It’s an illusion fueled by fear.
But the truth is we are interconnected, related, and woven together. We are meant for one-another. Meant to love, meant to be loved. We are both the village and the child.
But we can’t see that or know that if all we know is bodies, colors, opinions, objects, things, and beliefs. As long as we only see the outside and never consider the inside, the life that binds us and unites us, we will always be scared of the Boogie Man, the threats in the dark, the fears that we create. What I mean is, as long as we refuse to love one another and support one another, we will continue to separate the “village” that we were meant to live in.
What if our village was supposed to be Heaven on Earth, a united world, or even a united community, where everyone loved and supported one another because everyone knew they were part of the whole? What if the only way to enter this Kingdom of Heaven was through the original ways of a child? The ways of love, light, acceptance, trust, and interdependence.
Isn’t that the message of Easter?
Before his death, Jesus said there is no greater love than for one to lay down his life for his friends. He did that. But it’s bigger and beyond how you may think he did that because he did it in every way imaginable.
To lay one’s life down can also be seen as to give one’s life for, or dare I say live one’s life for.
If there is no greater love than to lay one’s life down for his friends, then there is no greater love than to give one’s life for his friends, to live one’s life for his friends.
This is the Kingdom that Jesus lived for, that he gave for. He was constantly telling his friends they were children, that they should love one another with all their hearts, that they should give themselves for each other. He was telling them this because he knew that they were connected by Love, that they were designed by Love to Love. And he was living his life this way in front of their eyes so that they could see Love in action.
Jesus knew we were all children and that we were also all the village. He knew our encouragements mattered. He knew our smiles mattered. He knew our time, our talents, our compassions - it all mattered.
For a child to grow up healthy, it must be loved. For a village to be strong, it must be united in love. We are all a part of the same “village” or “body.” But as long as we are divided by the illusions of fear, as long as we are separated, we cannot live in the Kingdom of Heaven. We will always be lacking wholeness and we will always be afraid.
I guess my point is that if we are ever going to experience Heaven on Earth, we need to go back to our design. We need to see the world through the bright eyes of wonder and acceptance. We need to brighten each others lives through giving to them and living for them. It is the greatest Love in action.
We also need to know and see the child, the life, that is both in us and in front of us. The life that was placed in our neighbor is also the life that was placed in ourselves. That life is Love and in Love we are all one village, one Kingdom.
And I think this is a message of Easter: We were created for each other. We need each other. The Kingdom of Heaven is within us. All we have to do Let it out by living for one another.
