Pick Up Your Toys!

(Found here)

“Do you ever find yourself nostalgic about childhood this time of year? I do. Growing up, school was out of session by this point in Advent and my siblings were home from college. The JCPenney toy catalog was covered with ink from my black Sharpie marker. Mom had tastefully decorated the house and most of the Christmas cookies were already baked. Dad had a regular and diligent routine for snow-blowing the driveway. The frigid evenings found us near the fireplace watching Christmas movies together.

Beyond being pleasant, I find the memories and even the nostalgic feelings quite helpful. They can do much more than make us want to relive childhood. They can move us to consider a simple salvific truth spoken from Our Lord’s own mouth; ‘Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt 18:3). After all, to whom else does the Kingdom of Heaven belong?

This entire season of Advent, our attention has been turned to the second coming of Jesus Christ—a coming that won’t be like the first. At the first coming, he came as a baby. He came as someone obscure and anonymous. He was known only by his family and friends. At the second, he will be fully grown. He will be known by the entire world, the good and the bad. When he came in obscurity, it was to be judged by the world. When he comes in glory, it will be to judge the world. How do we prepare for this second coming?

I believe the best way is to become like children. In fact, I think this season is about making a return to the nursery—a place where all kinds of toys abound. Specifically, the toys of humility, charity, and simplicity.

The first is humility—it’s the toy that looks a bit boring at first. There may even be some dust on it. Could it be as good as my friends say? By picking it up, we experience the good effects of needing to ask for help, admitting when we don’t know something, and even accepting our limitations with joy and delight.

Next, charity—it’s the toy that’s exciting at first glance. Yet, it sometimes ends up sitting on the shelf because it’s not always easy to maneuver. However, when we pick it up in one hand, we are set on track to love God with our whole heart. Then, trying it with the other, we love our neighbor as ourselves, and not simply because of what they do for us or how they benefit us, but because of who they are.

If humility is the unexpected toy we delight in, and charity the one that takes a little effort to get working just right, the third is the one we find when we go back to our childhood bedrooms. After forgetting that we even had it, we go back and realize just how good childhood was. That it was straightforward and uncomplicated. This is the toy of simplicity. With some mild effort, we pick it up and seek sincerity with God, our family, and our friends. We are no longer threatened by showing ourselves just as we are. We find ourselves straightforward and honest.

Charity, humility, and simplicity—all toys in the nursery. Ones which give us a certain security and confidence about the future. By playing with them—by becoming at ease with them and even delighting in them—we become more and more ready to meet Jesus Christ. Pick up your toys with me this holy season of Advent! Let’s make a return to the nursery!”

~Ceslaus Kowalkowski