The Dancer

Backward, turn backward, O Time in your flight, Make me a child again just for tonight.

These two well-known lines from the poem “Rock Me To Sleep,”1 seem very much in harmony with two lines spoken by Jesus in today’s Gospel Lesson:

I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it (Mark 10:15).

But time will not turn backward for us, not even for a single night. Only the TV camera allows for “reruns.” Consequently, how do we interpret Jesus’ call for a childlike response to His invitation into the Kingdom of God? Who are the model children we must emulate in staking our claim to the Kingdom?

Obviously, the experience in Jesus’ time would bear little resemblance to the growing-up experience of our time. Could it be that each of us is expected to revert back to his or her own particular time of youth? Or are we to…