Who Is That Old Lady?

       I remember when I was younger, thinking that one "became" a grown-up in the sense that being an adult changed you.  One day, a dear friend once shared with me one of her favorite memories.  I think it makes a wonderful parable.
       When she was 16, she spent the day with her grandmother who was in her 80's.  They went to the nearby town for the sidewalk sale and spent the day wandering around downtown.  They went window shopping, trying on things and looking through everything that was on sale.  Her grandmother bought her a strappy pair of gold high-heeled sandals that her mother would never have allowed.  They tried on lipsticks, ate hot fudge sundaes, and giggled their way through the day, having fun.
       At the end of the day, they came back to her grandmother's house.  There was a mirror on the wall in the entryway by the front door.  They came in laughing when her grandmother stopped right in front of the mirror and exclaimed, "Who is that old woman?"  My friend said that was when she realized that they had spent the whole day like two girlfriends.  Her grandmother hadn't felt "old" or different at all; they just had fun!
       My daughter was just a small child when I heard that story but I have remembered that and tried to have some of those days with her as we have both grown older.  I think it has been a good for us, learning to carve out fun together within the bonds of love.
       Sometimes we have a tendency to confuse being adult or being wise with being stiff, pompous or unwilling to change as if age sets us in stone.  As churches this often gets translated into what some call 'the seven last words of the church'; "We've never done it that way before".  Or when adults look at children or youth and 'shush' or 'tisk' at them with those looks that say, "You'd better behave".  It's as if we are worried that too much fun or creativity will cause us to lose our dignity.
       We need to both remember and pass on the lessons and wisdom we have learned in living but we also need to hold on to those best parts of ourselves that let us belly laugh, think outside of all the boxes, and accept people as they are.  Children have a firmer grasp of faith often in that when they believe or love, it just is without reserve.
       Once, when serving communion, after blessing a young child and moving on, he stood there hanging on to the communion rail with tears running down his face and said loudly, "Jesus loves me.  I need Jesus.  I want Jesus too."  I wondered then and have thought since, 'how many adults would have given as clear a confession and dared to speak out and demand communion?'  When the disciples asked Jesus "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?", he out a child among them.  He said that we must become like children.  Read Matthew 18:1-5