So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I have a question for you: has anyone showed you how to touch your toes?
I remember in gym class, we often had to touch our toes. It was part of the many ways they, in theory, measured our physical fitness and I couldn’t always do it. Not everyone can touch their toes – which is perfectly a okay – and I sort of thought it was weird that they showed me only one way to touch my toes. They told me to stand up, lean forward, and stretch to the floor. Every time we would do this physical fitness test, we would do it the same way. But I wonder – do you think there’s another way to touch our toes?
Let the kids show you how to touch your toes. Practice. Try. Reiterate that it’s okay if we can’t. Sometimes we can, sometimes we can’t; some people will always be able to touch their toes; others never will. Touching our toes or the shape of our body doesn’t determine our worth or love – we’re just here trying to see if there’s another way to touch our toes rather than the one way we always did it.
Then, once we try a few times, do the trick you saw on TikTok. Bend your knees. Lower your chest. Drop your head. Then straighten up.
Did you see that? A different way helped us touch our toes. Sometimes, to do what we want to do – or what God wants us to do – we can’t always do things the same way over and over again. Sometimes we need to use our imagination – or our listening skills by asking other people how they do what they do. We – as people – don’t always know everything or have all the answers, and that’s okay. It’s good to say “i don’t know” or “I need help” or ask others for their thoughts. God doesn’t want us to know everything. Instead, God invites us to ask questions, to wonder, and to see if we can imagine things in a new way. And God has wanted us to do that for a long time. We’ll hear, in the book of Acts, a story of when people will hear Jesus’ story in words it hadn’t been spoken in before. God’s story is full of a love that doesn’t end – but a love that also moves, swirls, grows, and changes. God invites us to embrace that kind of change too. That doesn’t mean change is always easy or that change is something we’ll always want. But even in the change, God is with us, transforming us, so that we can share with ourselves and with others the one thing that never changes – which is God’s love for you, me, and the world.
Each week, I share a reflection for all children of God. The written manuscript serves as a springboard for what I do. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship on Pentecost, 6/5/2022.