Growing up as children of God

“What is sex?” the five year old asked her Father. Her father was hoping he heard wrongly. “What did you ask?” “Daddy, what is sex?” He sighed, sat beside her, pondered for a while, and measuring his words, tried to explain the birds and the bees to his puzzled daughter. When he considered his first lesson on the topic finished, he sighed again in relief and asked her, “did you understand?… but, why did you ask me that question?” The daughter was still trying to digest the confusing situation but explained to her father, “Mommy said dinner will be served in a couple of secs.”

A father may find it difficult to explain the mysteries of human sexuality to a 5 year old. It is not about terms or reasoning. Children simply lack the maturity and experiences that enables them to understand that. Now, imagine you are not someone trying to explain something so personal to someone who is 30 years younger, imagine you are God and you want to explain yourself to human beings. That is a challenge.

Honestly, if you were God, would you attempt to explain yourself to humans? It is difficult for them to understand each other. The curse of Bable has long lasting effects. God, however, tried. He became man, spoke a human language, and did not choose the intellectual elite of Jerusalem to communicate but the fishermen and peasants of the countryside.

However, understanding is not only a matter of speaking the same language. Children simply don’t have what it takes to understand adults’ matters. In the same way, it is impossible for humans to understand God. Jesus explains ”I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” (Jn 16:12). The Spirit of God is what we need to understand God’s matters.

God’s incarnation (Christmas) and even Christ’s resurrection will remain inaccessible mysteries for us without the Pentecost. We would only be mere spectators of God’s power and wonders unless that power works within us. Our God is not only the God above of the Old Testament, not only the God with us of Christmas, but foremost the God within us of Pentecost.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is expressed in our hearts with a new kind of life that comes from God. Understanding from the Spirit is different from human understanding. One is about human matters, the other about understanding God.  Filial piety helps to build a relationship with parents; the gift of piety helps us to live as children of God. Life is not just a human life, but maturing into a divine dimension of  the human life. It is about growing up to partake in the business of God.

The power of the God of the Old Testament is not anymore something to witness from a distance, but something to experience within. It is not an overpowering strength, but certainly, it enables those who experience it to “achieve whatever they presume to do.” (Gn 11:6). Speaking and understanding God’s matters means we have truly grown up.