‘Meg bit Ted,’ my son read, immediately his eyes filled with tears. Even before he had read those words, he had sensed that something was about to happen. I comforted him, before asking him if he was okay. He said yes, but clearly, he hadn’t fully recovered. Being that it was before the school day started, I mentioned to the teacher what had happened and she said, ‘Oh that’s sweet, that’s empathy.’ I agreed. We went and sat on the mat, and then my son said he really didn’t want a dog because he didn’t want his teddy bear to be bitten.
Empathy can suffer from a broken heart.
Empathy can experience the fullness of God’s reality.
Empathy can be bravely vulnerable.
Yet we often suppress empathy
because it feels like weakness.
And luckily we don’t protect our children
of these experiences at school.
Particularly in an increasingly narcissistic age,
one of the best gifts we can give our children
they are opportunities to experience and express empathy.
Then I called my wife at work to tell her what had happened. Of course, it melted his heart. Then something very unremarkable happened. We end the call in the same way that we normally end calls when one of us is at work, with a simple goodbye and not with an ‘I love you’.
Suddenly God showed me something. Until recently I had been saying ‘I love you’ whether my wife said it or not. By not saying ‘I love you’ was I missing the opportunity to communicate my love, even if my wife didn’t feel comfortable reciprocating since she was at work?
The opportunity is to tell her again that I love her and not bother me because she cannot reciprocate in that situation. I had simply followed his example, having thought it was the right thing to stop saying I love you. But the best chance is to continue saying I love you while accepting that it is best for her not to reciprocate in that situation.
I really feel like God was saying,
love spreads without waiting
the other to reach the back.
Love loves because it can
not because I should,
not because he cajoled,
and definitely not to be reimbursed.
I subscribe to the opinion that none of us know when we breathe our last, and I would prefer that all my loved ones knew through my words how I feel about them.
Some days go by without much fanfare, but there are other days that are simply filled with meaningful experiences. In 30 minutes there were two experiences that are significant in the eternal realm.
Why would I communicate these things to you in this way today?
It could be as simple as remembering the sanctity of life that is enriched by the common experiences we all have.
We all have those simple and powerful moments with our children. All of our children are special. My son is no more special than yours! All our precious in the eyes of God.
Love has its chances of life.
We take them today or miss them forever.
And if we miss them today
we take them tomorrow.
As we journal about our experiences, we allow God to enrich us through the precious experience of reflection. This is simply what I have done here.
I really wonder what the hell we really have.
Death, of all things, teaches us to be open in this way.
I know that we have love, and those that God gives us to love. We can and most of us have innumerable possessions. All the things we have are eventually swept away, and yet one thing remains for all eternity: the spiritual connection we have between us.