This week my 4 year old was drawing a picture. It just wasn’t working out the way he wanted, and thus began a tantrum. Scribbling and yelling and crying ensued. Maybe even a marker was thrown. I took away the markers and the drawing pad and put them out of reach until he could calm down.
The tantrum grew worse and he tried to Spiderman his way up the fridge to get his things.
I managed to say a quick prayer, because normally I don’t respond well in these situations.
And next I found myself calmly rubbing his back and saying (and I can only say this was grace inspired), “I want to help you, but you have to turn around to me.” But the screaming continued…
Again I said, “I want to help you, but you have to turn around to me.” A little less screaming…
A third time I said, “I want to help you, but you have to turn around to me.” This time he turned to me and fell into a puddle of tears in my arms. And then calm. All was okay.
It occurred to me some time later that those words were not only my own. Those are also God’s words. Those are words that He whispers to us in our hearts all the time. We know He’s whispering those words, but often the pain is too much. But He presses on. He doesn’t give up on us.
He keeps saying to us, “I want to help you, but you have to turn around to Me.”
I know it can be hard – hard to ignore the pain, hard to forget the past, hard to push past the shame of sin, – but especially in this season of Advent, Jesus is whispering to us: I want to help you, but you have to turn to Me.
Will you turn to Him now? Will you go to Him with your pain, past, sin, shame, worry, fear, discouragement? Will you let Him help you? I promise you that He can help you. And only He can offer you the peace that you need.
In the Archdiocese of NY, we have Advent Reconciliation coming up on Monday, December 16. In any parish, you can find a priest available for confession. (I am sure many dioceses offer something similar.) We plan on being there. Will you make a stop in?
Advent is the perfect time to turn to Him in the healing sacrament of confession and welcome Christ into your heart for Christmas.
[This is a quick post that I sent out as an email to subscribers. My apologies to those who’ve already read it, but it was well received, so I’m sharing here too! If you’re not a subscriber and would like to be, follow this link.]
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