12.15

Hidden and Revealed (God & Michael)

Luke 10:21-22

At that very hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

When were you most you? It’s a question that bubbles up for me periodically. Like when the four-year-old blurts out something nonsensical that, in time, turns out to be anything but.

Last year, when her grandmother asked how her birthday cake tasted, my daughter answered, “Well Nana, it tastes like a moment.”

The eyes of every adult narrowed to squints and that familiar, oh-you-silly-thing voice responded, “A moment? That’s not a taste. How can it taste like a moment?”

“You know, with a moment you’re just happy or sad or excited. You’re all just that one thing. And that’s like this bite.” She forked it into her mouth then held it there for an extended, blissful count.

Eyes rolled, hair was tussled, and cake gave way to gifts without a second thought from any of us at the table. Not then anyway. And yet her comments have boomeranged back through my mind more than any others from the past year.

I’m so grateful to watch this person evolve and accumulate interests, understanding, skills and experiences. I can’t wait to know what she becomes. But I’m not sure she’ll ever be more her than in exchanges like that.

Verses 21 & 22 make me realize that question that bubbles up is really “When were you most like the you you want to be?” When were you free from the labels, achievements, opinions, failures, values and taboos you’ve acquired and forged into the armor of identity? When could you hold the past and the future in their proper (limited) regard? When did the things not of this world make all the sense in your world?

Jesus says it was when God had “hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them” to you. When the clouds of sophistication and cynicism had yet to roll in, and you could so easily see the source of pure love and meaning. When cake could still taste like a moment.

— Michael Powelson