You can just stare at them and smile and they don't find it rude or uncomfortable. They don't make excuses about being too busy or needing to do things. They want you to play with them and spend time with them and aren't the least bit shy about inviting you to do so in whatever way they want it, whether throwing a ball with them or climbing up you again and again to do flips in the air or asking to be carried on your shoulders.
They know how to receive. It's a pity we all forget how as we get older.
It's so easy to start believing that you aren't worthy of love or that people are just pretending to like you because they are being charitable while secretly they're wishing you would just go away. It's easy to get so focused on work and duty that there isn't really time for others. It's easy to take to heart the idea that it is more blessed to give than to receive and so to build your life around giving to others so that you don't have to face your own internal need for them—your need to receive.
Perhaps that is why Christ told us to become like little children. Perhaps that is why He wanted to come to earth as a little child Himself.
Today is Gaudete Sunday. After hearing my pastor's homily speaking of how the Church commands us to rejoice this day, I found it a beautiful gift to see how my Father in heaven provided for such rejoicing as I played with many joy-filled children after Mass. My reflection following that experience seems to me most suitable for preparing for the great feast of Christmas—the great celebration of Christ's birth—for I am pondering what it means to become like a little child and what it means to welcome the gift of the Christ-Child into my heart.
Gaudete!
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