Patience

Anyone who has been around children for 5 minutes knows that having and appreciating patience is a necessary virtue for maintaining any sense of sanity in the 6th minute and beyond. It allows one to be more fully present in allowing the child’s underdeveloped brain learn new skills through successful and unsuccessful tests of the environment and those in it. Children are ‘fun’ to watch as they exercise God’s gift of free-will in their experiences, while slowly weaning off their initial dependence on adults for survival.

Like the fig tree in today’s Gospel reading, we must constantly be reminded that every child discovers parts of their being in different ways and at different times. Furthermore, each being on this planet has different opportunities for learning and a different guide through the process. The difference between and among our paths is what makes us truly special. To use the botanical language of the parable, each person ‘blossoms’ at their own pace and each becomes their own unique flower that must be as equally loved and respected as the other unique flowers in the garden. Creation alone is a fruit from God.

Being a parent (or educator) would be easy, boring, and less beautiful if every human being matured and grew in the same way and along the same timeline. Not only would everything be predictable and less unique, but our frustration tolerances would never be tested. Moreover, we would not know how to work through the stresses that come from awaiting the unknown or working through the consequences of the known. God provides each of us - children included - with special timelines that are only revealed in real-time and any prediction of future blessings or challenges is just that…a prediction. Anticipating the revelations of God requires excitement, hope, curiosity, and, most importantly, patience.

This parable reminds me to respect God’s timeline and know that life, beauty, and purpose are manifested in different ways for each individual soul and creation. The child who masters a skill at age X is just as much a creation of God as the one who is still working towards it or never masters it at all. Each of us is the gardener in God’s garden, charged with fertilizing and cultivating each other with love and patience through the journey.

Author: Ben Kirby, Asst. Principal