A PLACE OF BELONGING

What a sweet experience returning home. Arriving late at night from our visit with Stephen and Amanda to meet newborn grandson Gabriel, Jonathan’s face lights up as soon as we pull into the driveway.  During our bedtime routine, he actually laughs out loud. He knows he’s home! Joy bubbles over to me with something akin to spiritual euphoria.  Is this what it feels like before God’s throne, in the presence of unspeakable beauty and love? Suffused with the warmth of belonging.  Of knowing and being known.  It is a holy moment. 

 I’m reminded what a privilege we have -  to provide a safe, nurturing place for this precious young man.  His gift of laughter is both the reward and the incentive to press on.  To know that our day in, day out labors, the effort to make his room a bright happy place, our home a welcoming peaceful haven, have borne fruit. How is that possible except through an emotional intelligence that transcends cognitive ability?

 Moreover, what I long for, Jonathan doesn’t tell, he shows.  Shows and experiences wholly. Completely, on the deepest level.  Here he is loved. And where is that place of belonging for me? That immediacy, that sense of being fully loved, where joy exudes from every pore of my being? Jonathan shows what I am meant to know every moment.  That longing fulfilled in God’s presence  - emotional and spiritual memory triggered by familiarity.  

 With the reminder comes a twinge of conscience. Have I visited that place of belonging often enough to recognize it? To respond immediately with the kind of exuberance that Jonathan has? Our time on earth is merely a shadow of the glory and joy we will know in fullness someday in eternity. In prayer and worship, I taste what is to come, where I will know and be known, love and be loved completely. For a Down’s child on the spectrum, those rare moments of connection are priceless. I can imagine that my Heavenly Father delights in those moments of connection with me, too.  I’m afraid that too often, God’s left waiting. Ironic that the one with limitations gets it. Once again, Jonathan’s joy pulls me Godward.

photo credit, Nancy Morrison