Ah, The Adult Jesus – Don Hanley’s blog #36

This time, I returned to the dream quickly, which I greatly appreciated.

I sat back in my chair and looked at Mary and John and then said, “I don’t know why I left you so quickly, but anyway, I’m back, and John, I’m very interested in what you began saying about what Jesus believed about children and, well, about everyone has the power to love and become enlightened just as Jesus was. Please tell me more.”

He looked at Mary and said, “Please, Mary, please tell Don what you told me about Jesus’s reflections on children.” He paused momentarily and then added, “You know, Mary, I think it is so sad that you were and are not able to teach in public about your thoughts and experiences. You have more wisdom in your little finger than the rabbis have in their collective minds.”

Mary began, “Thank you, John, but I don’t regret my role; I just think it is not time for me and women to speak in public.” She turned to me and said, “Well, Don, I’ll begin by sharing a very moving experience when I witnessed Jesus in his teens. As he often did, he was with a small group of children and looked at each. Then, he placed his left hand on a large rock near him as he sat in a circle with the children. He raised and lowered his pinkie finger and said, ‘Would you all do this? Raise and lower your littlest finger.’ They all did, and he asked, ‘Now tell me how we can do this? I can’t see any strings or hands or anything helping my finger go up and down. So, how do I do it?’ Several children said they didn’t know; one said God did it, and another said there was an invisible rope that each of us used. A pretty six-year-old named Sara added, “I think we all have the kind of energy that we have at our command so that we can move our muscles whenever we want to just by thinking about it.” They all waited for Jesus to answer, and he let them wait a while and then said, ‘Thank you, Sara, you are correct. In a way, God made us so that all we need to do is think about it, and the muscles in our hands and fingers move the way we want them to. Isn’t that wonderful?’ Then he put his hands together in prayer and said, ‘Thank you, Yahweh, for creating us in such a wonderful way.’ And they all repeated his words and actions.”

Mary had been awed by the scene and showed it in her glowing smile as she repeated it for me. She continued, “Often after he had been with a group of children, he would share some of his ideas about children and humans with Joseph and me. That day, he told us that we all were blessed, even as children, with a wonderful ability to realize how we are connected in a kind of love, force, power, or grace. I don’t think there are any words to describe it. What do you think, John? And Don, what do the wise men of your century say about children's possible ability and wisdom?” Mary exhaled and sat back in her chair. 

 John replied, “First, I believe Jesus often contradicted the wise men of our time. I’m not sure, but I believe we were taught that we were just puppets of Yahweh and His angels and were only doing what we were taught. Our job was to obey what our parents and teachers told us to think and to do. Now, Don, has that changed over all these years, and in what ways in your 21^st century?” 

I thought the first chance I got, I’d get with a bunch of kindergartners and preschoolers, do what Jesus did, and see how they reacted. I told John and Mary, “I believe that for far too long, it was believed that children came into the world as blank slates – that is, with empty minds that need to be filled up with the facts about life and the world and that is the responsibility of schools to provide these ‘facts.’ 

Religious schools were set up to ensure that Jesus’s teachings, laws, and devotions from the Bible were drilled into children's minds. What you said about what Jesus taught is just now being explored. I think I am one of those pushing to have all teachers and schools become places that nurture children's inborn ideas and giftedness. I think that our invitation to open our minds and hearts is often as quiet and soft as our own heartbeat and. . . ” and darned if I didn’t disappear again. Now, please . . . 

Continue to open your mind, nurture your heart, and study, but don’t eat the menu.