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I AM A CHILD OF GOD!

A week ago, I took a short trip with my family to Hazyview, Mpumalanga, in the east of South Africa. South Africa offers such diverse and beautiful landscapes. We visited the majestic Mac Mac Falls, drove the scenic route of the Panorama, climbed to the top of the lookout of God's Window, and visited the Kruger National Park.

The area is home to tree plantations that stretch for hundreds of kilometers. The trees form beautiful tree canopies that can be seen as you drive along the road. The trees are planted in perfect rows creating organised forests. When the trees reach full maturity, they are cut back into logs for transporting for further manufacturing. The area is then burnt, and after some time, new trees are planted to recreate a new canopy of trees for future harvesting. 

Road en route to God's Window, 14 June 2021

These trees serve an essential purpose over their lifetime. They will provide shelter to various forms of animal and insect life. They will absorb tons of carbon dioxide and provide us with oxygen. By the end of their life cycle, they will create paper, packaging, and many other uses for export. These trees have significant value to us all. 

When someone is baptised, they are marked to carry out a critical mission. In fact, during Baptism, two essential things take place: 

  1. The baptised person is incorporated into Jesus Christ. Think of this incorporation as a protective bubble formed around all baptised Christians. What comes to mind is how the harvested area in the tree plantations are burnt without spreading or harming the rest of the forest. You clearly see a firebreak of heavy sand that separates the different sections of the plantations. In the Sacrament of Baptism, Christians are protected from the fires of hell. 
  2. The baptised person is configured to the person of Jesus Christ. When I searched the word configuration, it comes from the Latin word "configurare," which means fashion or shape after a pattern. The sower of the trees ensures that each tree is planted an equal distance from its neigbour, which provides that organised symmetry seen along the road. However, the trees are planted this way to ensure that when they grow, they all receive equal amounts of sunlight and will continue to grow up and receive the maximum amount of sunlight while growing tall and strong. As much as the trees look the same in stature, they are all uniquely different with their own characteristics, imperfections, and defects. Still, they are nourished by the same sun. In Baptism, all Christians maintain their identity but are shaped to grow tall and strong by following the example of the Son of God, Jesus Christ! 

Almost a year ago, Noah (my son) came into the world with a cry as he left the comfort and warmth of his Mom's womb. He was so vulnerable and small and, after examination, was swaddled and handed to me to present to his Mommy. A little over eleven months later, he can crawl, stand, speak a few words, and is preparing to take his first steps. Almost thirty years ago, I, too, could not do anything without the loving care of my Mom and Dad. Let's go back over 2,000 years, and in a quiet and humble setting, Mary gave birth to the Son of God. Jesus would have cried to suckle at the breast of the Blessed Virgin Mary to nourish and love him. 

We know the angel Gabriel told Mary, "… And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High…" (Luke 1:31-32). God, all majestic, all-powerful, and the creator of the entire universe, willed to entered the world as an infant totally dependent on Mary and St. Joseph to attend to his every need. We know that God created Adam and Eve in his image and likeness from the creation story. God continues to make us in his image and likeness through the generations to you and me and will continue to do so with the generations to come. Jesus, born of Mary as the Son of God, makes us all children of God, and Jesus, our eldest brother. 

Why would Jesus be our eldest brother? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1). Jesus is the Son of God and the second person of the Holy Trinity. He has existed before the concept of time was created and will exist forever. Jesus helps explain this mystery in the parable of the vine and the vinedresser. I recently pruned some trees in my garden (I have a perfectionist obsession with growing trees with straight stems). I cut back many of the branches, and Cassandra thought I had destroyed the tree as it was pretty bare. However, within a week, new shoots began to show at the top of the tree. With time, cutting back branches will ensure energy is transferred away from the branches via the stem and up toward the branches that were not cut back. The result is a tree that has a solid and straight stem. 

Gardenia tree I pruned, 29 April 2021

Jesus tells us that his Father is the pruner, and he cuts away the branches that bear no fruit and prunes the branches that do bear fruit so that they may bear more fruit in abundance. We are the branches, and we are branches joined to the tree trunk of Jesus Christ. Our Baptism allows us to share in the life of His Father in heaven, who is also Our Father. He prunes us through the minor sufferings of life. However, pruning never destroys but brings new life to our branches to provide shade, shelter, and delicious fruits to others. A child of God is a Christian, and a Christian understands that God is a loving Father! 

Considering all the above, it was only a while back that I was struck by the realisation of what it means to be a child of God in a simple but profound way. I was at Sunday Mass, and Noah had fallen asleep in my arms. I went up to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion, and as he lay in my arms, I realised he trusts his life to the safety of my arms. I was dumbfounded how Noah depends on me without a doubt. Our Father in heaven has no defect. All he asks us to do is throw ourselves into his arms to care for our every need. 

"Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in." ( C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

 

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Comments

Thato:) said…
Grateful Clint.
June 26, 2021 at 1:27 PM
Unknown said…
Fantastic, phew!!!
June 26, 2021 at 2:42 PM
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