November 16, 2011 (toward the eternal light)

toward the eternal light

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle-bed;
So shut your eyes while Mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:
Wynken, Blynken, And Nod.”
- Eugene Field

“As the flower in the garden
stretches toward the light of the sun,
so there is in the child a mysterious inclination
toward the eternal light.
Have you ever noticed this mysterious thing
that when you tell the smallest child about God,
[he or she] never asks with strangeness and wonder,
'What or who is God – I have never seen Him,'
but listens with shining face to the words
as though they soft loving sounds
from the land of home.
Or when you teach a child to fold
[his or her] little hands in prayer
that [he or she] does this
as though it were a matter of course,
as though [it was] opening
for [the child] that world of which [he or she]
had been dreaming with longing and anticipation.
Or tell them, these little ones,
the stories of the Savior,
show them the pictures with scenes
and personages of the Bible –
how their pure eyes shine,
how their little hearts beat.”
- R.C.H. Lenski