Little Pictures Have Big Ears
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few moments and allow yourself to just be. Take a couple deep breaths, grab yourself a cup of coffee, light a candle, do something that brings you comfort. Allow yourself to be present in this moment.
Consider how each generation learns from the examples set by generations before it. How might this awareness shift the intentions behind the choices we make today?
Mark 4:30 - 32
Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
In everything we do we must ask “and how are the children?”
― Masai Greeting
Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
― James Baldwin
Food for Thought
There is a saying repeated often in my family - little pictures have big ears. It means that the littlest among us, those “little pictures”, pick up on EVERYTHING you say and do. I will never forget one Sunday many years ago, when my dad preached a Father’s Day sermon referencing that very saying. He told of the time he heard a little girl utter a four letter word in frustration - not just any little girl… HIS little girl… me. When he asked where in the world I'd heard such language, my response was, “I heard it from you, daddy.” In that moment, our family's saying rang very clearly in his own ears.
In fairness to him, I have learned far more from my Dad about justice, kindness, respect for creation, love of family and community, and Christ-centered living, than about four-letter-words. And am grateful, that throughout my life, I have always known what it is to be loved and accepted for who I am.
It isn’t, after all, just the ears of children that are of concern; children’s minds, hearts, self-esteem, and sense of belonging are affected by what they experience and absorb.
Our children are always paying attention - observing, soaking in the world around them, as well as the things we do and convey. Are we being careful? What will our children learn from what we do? What choices will they make in the future based on our example?
I’m reminded of the mustard seed - like the head of a pin, it is among the smallest visible seeds of the world. Yet mustard grows! And depending upon how it is cultivated, it can either choke out life around it, or grow as a healthy part of the ecosystem - providing a home for the birds who need a safe place to land and nourishment for other creatures of the earth. It is all in how those mustard plants are tended as they grow.
Children are not so very different from the mustard seed. They grow - watching and listening, shaped and tended - into the adults they will become. The examples we set in our own living offer guidance and direction along the way and can determine whether our children will be encouraged into life-tending, loving ways of being in the world.
There is a greeting in the Masai tradition that asks, “And how are the children?” For the Masai community, this greeting is the measuring stick for how well the society is doing. If the children are well, the community is doing a good job. If the children are not well, then they know there is something that must be addressed.
What if we all lived by this greeting? What if we asked ourselves often - how are our children? What are our children seeing? What are our children hearing? In what ways do our children know love, respect, kindness, generosity, welcome and hospitality?
The Masai greeting holds the responsibility for the well-being of the children within the entire community. On this week of Father’s Day, I give thanks for the nurturing ways my own dad gifted me with an incredible example of welcome and love. I also give thanks for the community of folks that tended and cared for me as I was growing - a legacy of shared responsibility and care that continues to shape who I am and my own call to tend the little hearts and minds in my community. Through their example I am reminded that it is the shared responsibility of us all to make sure the little pictures of this world - the little ones who are watching and listening - know something of love.
Take a moment to think of an adult whose example of love helped shape who you were as a child and who you became as an adult. What was it about this person that was so special? Think of a child or youth in your own life for whom you can be an example of love. Take the time to write and send an encouraging note to that young person this week.
Blessing
Nurturing God, we give thanks for those who have cultivated love in our lives. As we tend the young hearts and minds around us, keep us ever mindful that the flourishing of our world is tied to their wellbeing, and that they will grow in some degree from our own example of love.
A little Table Talk for your table...
Is there anyone who has been a role model to you? What has been significant about this person’s influence in your life?
Has there been a time when you were surprised by a child’s attentiveness to your behavior or words? What do you remember about that experience?
Consider the Masai greeting “and how are the children?” How does this greeting guide our treatment of one another in community?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
What do you want to be when you grow up? Is there a grown up who has inspired you to strive for that goal?
Show your child a mustard seed (or any seed for that matter). Talk about what it takes to make things grow.
How are people like plants/flowers? What do people need to grow into healthy adults?
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