Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

I am perpetually amused (and even sometimes annoyed) by the barrage of questions the boys have. Why are we going this way? When will we be there? Did you see that semi-truck? It’s blue. Why is it blue? Where is it going? Isn’t it neat?

On and on the questions and amazement go.

When did we stop asking questions, I wonder?  I think God loves amazed questions more than exhausted declarations. I think God would rather have us wondering aloud at the beauty of it all. I think Jesus welcomes children because we adults get too tired.

Children see the potential of the world and of life. They understand that what is spread before them is limitless horizon – they are ever on the cusp of revelation’s promise. We adults, trained in scientific methods, enlightenment notions, and rational discourse are supposed to find firmness of purpose and possibility in what we see and know.

Yet, children know the world is suffused with possibility and its seams are pulling apart because latent grace is yearning to break free. They see within tree and grass and tide and even within terror that more is there – more is just waiting to be held and beheld for the first time. They step forward boldly because they are aware that something is calling and that love will hold them fast as they reach out for more.

At baptism we pray for children baptized as follows:

“Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon these your servants the forgiveness of sin, and have raised them to the new life of grace. Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.”

It is only in a world of wonder (a world where true joy may be found) that Jewish carpenters (and us along with Him) are raised from the dead.

Crucial to the life of the newly baptized is the hope that they will receive the gift of joy and wonder. My prayer for the Church is that we can always hold fast to joy and wonder – that we can live with such joy in our salvation that those we love and those we meet might find us asking questions, delighting in discovery, and ever on the cusp – at the horizon – of God’s unfurling and unending love. 

May we be convinced that Love is holding us fast even as we are drawn to reach for more as we ask questions and delight in holy possibilities. 

Yours in Joy and Wonder,

Fr Robert