Remembering God In Something or Someone You Loved
I know that some of you don’t have a Teddy bear. If you don’t, please think of something that you love or that is sacred to you— it could be a child or a pet. Maybe it was a person like your gramma?
Last week, we talked about how you used to see God in those things— in your Teddy bear, in yourself as a child, in your pet or your gramma.
When God was your Teddy bear, do you remember that you loved him even when he got dirty and got old? You never asked God to be sparkling clean and new all the time. You let God get old and dirty and you still loved him.
When God was your Teddy bear, you protected him from danger. You would put your 4-year-old self in between him and anything that hurt him.
That is how God remembers you. God remembers you protecting him when you were 4 years old.
When you got older, you started asking God to protect you, instead. You didn’t want God if he was old or dirty.
Funny how when you were 4 years old, you knew that God loved you and would protect you, no matter what. That’s because you would do the same for him. That’s what you did for your Teddy bear. That’s what you did for God when he was in your Teddy bear.
The moment you stopped protecting God, when you got older, you stopped believing God would protect you.
Sacredness is when God was in your Teddy bear… when God was in your child’s eyes… when God was in your puppy dog… when God was in your gramma…
All of those things loved you and protected you— unconditionally. Even though they were only 4 years old or like your gramma, 90 years old, they still protected you. Their love protected you. And God was inside of them— protecting you.
That is why we baptized your Teddy bear last week.
And that is why we are going to do a ritual for Lent today with your Teddy bear. We are going to remember when you hugged and kissed God everyday.
God was always there for you— because you took him with you, everywhere you went.
