C’mon Papa, TALK!
“C’mon, Papa, talk!” It was our granddaughter Caroline’s reaction to my momentary silence. We were sitting on the floor in front of the just completed crèche. For almost-four Caroline, mere observation and appreciation of the nativity scene was insufficient. A more active involvement was required. We each had to become one of the assembled personages.
Handing me the figurine of a magi, Caroline said, “Here, you be him.” So, a Wise Man I became. She decided that Mary, being a mother, would be just right for her. In the biblical story, the Magi are silent in the presence of Jesus and his family. I was not afforded that luxury! Imaginary worlds are no fun if they are quiet.
So, Wise Man that I now was, I needed to leave my rational, adult world behind and enter one in which all things were possible. In this world’s reality, the baby Jesus, still lying in a hay-filled manger, was perfectly capable of chasing after a donkey that had galloped out of the stable. Imagination has no borders! After we had been role playing for some time, I’d exhausted my most immediate magi thinking and topics for conversation. I was momentarily stumped as to where to head next. The silence hung there, tolerated by Caroline for only a few seconds. Children do not have to work at imagining; it is wonderfully natural, a magical component of childhood. But for most of us adults, extended forays into the imaginary world of childhood constitute work! It was my brief, quiet moment of imagination restoration that prompted the opening words: “C’mon, Papa, talk!”
When life is hard and its promises seem to be fading away, there is an understandable yearning for something or someone who will reinstate a sense of hope and possibility. The political-economic climate in Israel in the opening years of the first century was harsh. Most people struggled by on a day-to-day basis. Taxes were crushing. Freedom was only a distant memory. Hunger was common. Jewish people dreamed of a Messiah who would remove the yoke of oppression and restore freedom.
It might not be too far fetched to suggest that in that dream were words that somewhat mirrored our granddaughter’s comment to me: “C’mon, God, talk!” And a child was born. And later he spoke. The Gospel of John images Jesus as God’s Word made flesh. And in his speaking, we affirm that we hear in a unique way the voice of God. And his words move and guide us still, a gift of the Spirit of God to our spirits. And what a gift that is!