A Little Child to Guide Us.

“The child,” William Wordsworth wrote, “is the father of the man.”

Wordsworth, whose young heart leapt at the sight of a rainbow, never outgrew his childhood wonder at the natural world. As an adult, he gazed out the window of his beloved Dove Cottage to the lake beyond the neighboring meadow. His writing benefited as much from that idyllic view as from his Cambridge education. Even a strung-out houseguest, fellow writer Thomas de Quincey slurping laudanum by the quart downstairs, could not disenchant Wordsworth, the Romantic poet born of the boy who loved rainbows.

Who were you? Did the girl proudly reading books aloud to her parents become the lector you are? Did the boy who took excellent care of his pets become the veterinarian people trust with their family dogs and cats? Did the mistreated child become the compassionate advocate for abused kids who can’t speak out for themselves?

The little one you were lives within you yet. A young heart hides inside your grownup self. To the child of God in you, Jesus is coming to reveal the One he calls Father. These Advent days are yours to count down like a child. Number them. Open the calendar doors day by day. Savor each mouthful of chocolate. Pray, wait, anticipate, and look, as William Wordsworth looked out his cottage window, to a world still as wonderful and strange as it was when you were new to it.

Rachel M. Srubas. Taken from Give Us This Day.

Rachel M. Srubas is a Presbyterian clergywoman and Benedictine oblate. She is the author of numerous books, including The Girl Got Up and the recently released Benedictine Promises for Everyday People.