REFLECTIONS ON CHILDHOOD
For T.T. on Father’s Day

God's light reflected
comes into my heart
through eyes of a child
wide in trust and delight;
hungering for news, open to love
triggered to action that's coming and going —
out to the world with gusto, bravado;
and back again basking in mothering warmth;
action personified, dropped to deep sleep;
covered with scratches and mud;
cherubic clean, surrounded by bubbles;
growing and probing, emerging in stages —
surprising the one who's observing each age.

Thus the Father sees us:
launching, retreating;
staggering; thrusting
to victory, defeat;
through thick and through thin
from milk unto meat —
one foot in heaven, the other on earth,
headed toward Him, in His Kingdom:
the land of true birth.