Please excuse my absence...

...but I have been as sick as I have ever been in years, but feeling somewhat better today I thought I might offer this little example of this parent learning something profound from their children.

Lying about in a zombie-like state of sinal bloating, my eldest boy spent a good part of this morning wrapping up some of his toys with towels, paper, or whatever he could find and then presenting them to me as gifts over and over and over again. And while this got rather old after awhile, it did give me pause to consider that some of the best gifts we could ever give to someone are the things that we possess already.


Comments

Monica said…
I had a similar thought yesterday. When we offer bread and wine at the liturgy we are like little kids gathering flowers and weeds to present to our Parent. Yes the garden belongs to the Parent and yes the Parent knows far more about the garden, flowers and weeds but the simple act of offering is beautiful and necessary. With the offering from the garden, the Parent can express His love in a way impossible if the child had not offered the flowers.

So it is with the Liturgy if we did not offer our bread and wine, God could not send His Son to be Food for us in that way. Nothing original or earth shattering. Just the ancient Faith sinking in in drips and drabs...
1:40 PM
Anonymous said…
amigo, i've missed you. didnt realize you were sick. i'll pray for you today.

as for gifts? you are right on...

)( s
www.nowandever.be
4:31 PM
Elizabeth @ The Garden Window said…
Hi James
Sorry to hear you are suffering.
Funnily enough I was praying for you and the family on Monday night ..... I guessed something was up when you haven`t been posting much.
Take care, and I hope you feel better soon.
11:28 PM
Anonymous said…
Sorry to hear you are under the weather James. I'll pray for your speedy recovery, but if you are still feeling ill tomorrow evening, give me a call and I'll be happy to come over and fix some hot "Serbian cold/flu remedy"!
6:30 AM
fdj said…
Thanks for all the well wishes...things are looking up for me today and I expect a relative return to normalcy this weekend - as long as this plague clears the rest of my family by then.

Abayea! I had not even cosidered the analogy of the bread and wine we offer at the Liturgy...that is wonderfully true! In the same way, my son who was offering the gifts was more blessed in my animated joy at having received the gifts...and so in a sense I was giving the gifts back to him as something much better.
11:19 AM
Anonymous said…
Sometimes it is only in those moments when we are totally stopped dead in our tracks that we can truly see the light. With all the contemplating that we do about the liturgy and gifts -- how precious that your son brought us the lesson in such an innocent, honest and TRUTHful way! Praise God when He slows us down long enough to listen to the wee ones!
9:40 AM
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