Break through, Inner Child, Break through!

Look with winter’s lens on the garden

You will see wilderness

Look with summer’s eye, the view lush

Spy the garden with eyes of a child

In all seasons

It will become a wonderland.

A reflection on Matthew 18:1-5

We all laughed at the clip from The Daily Show.  The video ended, laughter settled, but something within me couldn’t let go of what I heard.  Most memorable were Donald Trump’s thoughts on immigration:

“ … people are just walking across the border... It is so terrible, it is so unfair…we have people that are criminals, we have people that are crooks, you can certainly have terrorists, you can certainly have Islamic terrorists, you can have anything coming across the border…So I would say that if I run and if I win, I would certainly start by building a very, very powerful border”.à

Could it actually be true that someone would seriously consider building a fence around the United States so that no immigrants might come in?  How could anyone think that this is a reasonable solution?

                I look out my back window at my garden.  Everything is brown; frozen. All I can see are toys strewn around, chairs knocked over, a hole in the fence, a sagging gate.  Foolishly, we let the kids think they could go out and play and now they’ve ruined things.  Scattered all across my once-beautiful refuge is debris from the explosion of playful children.  The urge comes quickly when I see the wreckage.  “We need to build a fence,” I declare, “a solid wooden fence with a strong gate and lock.”    

                Days later, I am journaling. In a moment of clarity, I gaze at the garden with the lens of my inner child. The inner child is an artist- curious and playful.  She flourishes because she trusts in God’s provision and takes joy in Divine abundance.  In all seasons, the inner child views the garden with possibility and hope.  She recognizes the realm of God in even the most desolate places.  She knows that there is enough for all of us. 

Scarcity is the lens with which walls are built.  Fear and greed raise fences in the name of protection. We need not make attempts to protect God’s provisions.  God’s abundance pours over walls breezes past borders.  When we choose to live into God’s economy of abundance, we realize that borders and fences are not the answer, they are the problem.  They only serve to keep us from living in communities in which all flourish.

                As children of the Great Provider, we believe in fruit rather than fences, bridges in place of borders, and welcome instead of walls.  The possibilities for God’s creation are bigger than the restrictive notion of a cold, dull fence.  What about an orchard?  What about border communities of welcome and solidarity?  We have been given all that we need and more.  Our task is not to erect a wall. It is to allow the abundant Spirit, the creative inner child, to breakthrough.