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Do I Matter to God?
By Bob Swimm
I remember the winter of 1955 as if it were yesterday. It was another time in another religion—an entirely different world I was to discover in God’s Church. There had been a horrible argument between my parents, at what was supposed to be the merriest and happiest time of the year, and they did not speak for nearly three months. The tension in the house was overwhelming, my stomach churned constantly. It was too much for a seven-year-old little boy to cope with.
One particular evening, on the way to my bedroom, Dad stopped me on the landing and said, “Your mother and I are splitting up!” I was crushed. My little world, as I had known it was over. What was going to happen now? | |
But even at that young age I did have a relationship with God. I believed in Him. I trusted in Him. All night long, or at least it seemed like all night to me, I prayed [they were Our Fathers, Hail Mary’s, and Glory Be’s]. The next morning Mom met me in the hall and told me that she and Dad made up last night.
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When Jesus’ disciples asked Him who would be greatest in the Kingdom, Jesus set a little child in their midst. Jesus told them they and all would follow to this day that it would be necessary to have the converted, simple, innocent, and humble attitude of a trusting child—the same attitude I had the night I went to bed with tears welling in my eyes for my parents to mend their marriage.
Later, when Jesus’ disciples tried to shoo away the little ones, Jesus fussed at them and demanded them to bring the children to Him. He then blessed them (Matthew 19:14). I’ve never been blessed to have children, but one of my favorite duties as a minister of Jesus is to hold an infant or toddler at the Feast for the “Blessing of Little Children.” Our great creator God heard the pitiful cry of a frantic little boy endlessly sobbing Hail Mary’s in 1955; will He not do likewise for our more knowledgeable children, teens and young adults in 2004? As I learned so long ago and, as did David anciently, “Find out for yourself how good the Lord is” (Psalms 34:8). “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?”
Deuteronomy 4:7 | |
 From the Editor |
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