Daily Lesson for March 17, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 131 verses 1 through 3:

 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore.

Now here is the image of full serenity: a child at her mother's side, trusting fully that her mother is good and faithful and shall not let her down.

The child is no longer a babe.  She is weaned now, meaning she is beyond the time and need for constant solicitation and tending. She has grown older now.  She trusts. She knows her mother is there and will not fail her. She is no longer at her mother's bosom or even in her lap. She is at her side. Her mother is there, loving and protective and near; but there is also separation. The child and her mother are two and not one. They are together but not the same. What the child has learned is to trust -- to trust her mother and to trust herself.

It is in our separateness from God that we learn to trust in God. As we grow and mature, we are weaned. We no longer seek to control or manipulate or remain as one with God. We are separate, we are distinct, we are our own persons. The psychologists call this discovery "individuation".  But it is in our individuality that our mutuality takes on new meaning and beauty. We are not God; but we are God's children, holding hands, following, walking together, embracing, and learning even to let go.