Hidden Treasure
Could it be that our best knowing came when we were humble children? When we were observant, curious, question-askers? When everything around us was difference and we had nothing to prove?
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."
New knowing is hidden in difference.
Watch the face of a weeks-old child. Without language or formal education, this little one is learning. Growing in knowing. Her eyes tell the story. They observe, study, absorb everything new. How often I have wondered, "What must be going on in that little head of yours?"
Sometime later, the child asks, "What is that?" And, "Why?" So many questions. But somewhere along the way, the questions stop. For many people, the impulse to defend beliefs and ideologies overwhelms curiosity. We know people like this; people who have given up on growing and maturing.
Our online virtual world reinforces this impulse. Algorithms use psychographics to silo us in 'people like us' groups. Post-by-post, we hear what we expect to hear, what we want to hear. Other views are parodied and ascribed to a less-than-human them/they.
It's not just our muscles that atrophy when we sit too much. So do our minds, our sense of citizenship and responsibility, our trust, our ability to relate. Healthy people engage difference, because new knowing is hidden in difference. There's nothing new in sameness. Engaging difference exercises our ability to know, and to still love in order to know more.
We don't have to, nor should we, agree with everything we encounter. Yes, sometimes reality will ask us to adjust our positions. But other times, we will develop more and better reasons to hold fast. Either helps us grow in understanding.
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children."
Matthew 18:3
And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 19:14
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Could it be that our best knowing came when we were humble children? When we were observant, curious, question-askers? When everything around us was difference and we had nothing to prove?