Edmund the Inflatable Astronaut and What He Taught Me About The Kingdom of God

THIS ... is a giant inflatable astronaut.

He is in my office. He is staring at me. He has friends. His friends include Zoom the space traveling teenager, Twila, Zoom's timid younger sister and yes ... where would this kind, gentle astronaut be without the likes of his good friend Sid the super-intelligent space dog.

THIS ... is a giant inflatable astronaut and he is in my office.

But why, you may ask? Why is he in my office? What use could Jeremy possibly have for such a childish, silly, waste of space as this giant inflatable astronaut (who will from now on be referred to as Edmund - for no other reason than that the name is a properly English name and such a proper name seems ridiculous for such an improper inflatable object ... but I digress). Yes, anyhow ... WHY?! Why is Edmund staring at me? What is Edmund's purpose?

Well there is a perfectly good answer: Vacation Bible School.

You see every year at the church in which I serve we hold a Vacation Bible School for the children of the community. Bible lessons, games, arts and crafts ... you name it we have it! And this year, who has the task of organizing this great fanfare? None other than yours truly.

Over the past three months I have been ordering, reviewing, administrating, overseeing and yes ... inflating. Now I must confess sincerely - this is not at all my comfort zone.

I am not prone to children, nor am I prone to the simple, concrete ideas to which children can cling and own. I taught a group of 3rd and 4th graders for a year in Sunday school long ago. My first lesson I digressed for 30 minutes on how Jesus was Divine and Human in one single Person. Hypostatic Union + 3rd and 4th Graders = Animal Crackers Being Thrown at Mr. Jeremy During Snack Time.

I will be even more honest with you ... at times over these past few months - I have found myself grumbling over my preparations. Frustrated. Indeed, bitter over having to prepare such simple, foolish, CHILDISH programs. I have a degree, I am a grown man, I am ... SMARTER than this! I read Kafka and Kierkegaard and I think I understand them!! I wrote papers in seminary refuting German source critics and analyzing deep theological complexities. I KNOW GREEK! I KNOW LATIN! I KNOW WHAT SUPRALAPSARIANISM IS AND CAN PROBABLY EXPLAIN IT!! What in the hell business does Edmund the giant inflatable astronaut have staring back at me in my office while I watch over, and over, and over cheesy children's skits from the curriculum pack?!

WHY?!

Oh, but then there is God's silent, soul-striking way of re-framing our questions. Driving to church one day this last week I heard the verse from Luke18:17 spill out over the radio and shock my inappropriate arrogance into submission ...

"Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God
like a child will not enter it at all.”

Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.

At all.

Nada.

No Entrada.

You see, in all my vanity, in all my arrogance, in all my big-headed intellectualism it hit me. It struck me that possibly I was in fact hiding! I was hiding from the truth that indeed I haven't fully grasped the beauty of God's Kingdom because I haven't fully become a child. I haven't become simple, dependent, wishful, hopeful ... childish.

Perhaps I had missed the depths of what it meant to be in the kingdom of God because I had refused to become a child. I had entered on the terms that I would be intelligent, independent, smooth ... hip! I had entered on these terms and yet - no one CAN enter on these terms. I had been and am mistaken.

So you see it struck me then and it strikes me now that perhaps God isn't using me to teach the children, maybe He was using the children to teach me! To humble me! To say to me: "Jeremy, you are like these before The Almighty Wisdom of My Name!" Maybe you need to hear the same striking message. Maybe you too must become a child and stop hiding under the pretense of adulthood. Maybe we all do.

So now Edmund looks at me - and I look back him - and I remember as I leave each day from my office the humiliating - yet paradoxically dignifying - words of Jesus ...

Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.

//Ex Profundis//