Jupiter

Thursday morning, I had the opportunity to go to daily mass and took it. Thursdays is the children's mass, for the kids at the school attached to the Parish. On the one hand, it's so awesome because we get to "spice it up" a little with song and what not that we don't always get during daily mass. On the other hand, because of the kids you have to sit way in the back and they also sometimes change the readings, which I hate because I try to read them ahead of time to really "hear" them. One thing that always impresses me, though, is how well behaved these kids are. They keep silence in the church better than I've ever seen the adults do on a Sunday... even on a weekday. A sea of green plaid fills the church, and the kids can be found kneeling and praying before mass instead of talking to each other. It's very encouraging to see these kids set the example for the wild and unruly adults we have.

Instead of a homily, Monsignor usually gets down into the congregation and asks guiding questions to the kids.... at which point lots of the "grown ups" start to shut down and quit paying attention. But I've found that in these moments I sometimes learn so much! Asking the question: "Who is this Jesus to YOU?" Monsignor roamed a sea of energetic raised hands, taking answer after after answer. He asked what types of things in our daily lives we could thank Him for... and that's when it happened.

One little girl answered "He created us." and sat back proudly in her seat. She was met with a fatherly "Yes, absolutely. He created us, and we can certainly be thankful for that. What else?"

And this little tiny brown-eyed bean, not much much older than my own, with a shy and beautiful smile, told him: "Um, well He created Jupiter!"

I marveled at what a personal God we have. It had never occured to me to thank God for the planet Jupiter, and yet here I had this motion picture in my head-- the little girl's piqued interest as she discovered Jupiter in school.... her subsequent report where she learned to visualize and describe for others this planet made up of swirling trails of hydrogen and helium, her looking up at the sky at night gleefully with her parents, squinting to find the fifth planet from the Sun, marveling that though it is a gigantic planet, it looks so tiny to the naked eye, and yet so bright, and laying in bed at night, wondering if Angels live there and what they look like.

Granted, I'm not her, and she may have different reasons for loving Jupiter, but if you could have seen the bliss on this child's face as she thanked God for creating her favorite planet--- it was just beautiful.

It reminded me of just how intimate our God is. He stirs us gently in the corners of our heart that we don't know had life, and takes the things we hold so dear and speaks to us through them. If my heart is Jupiter, then the Holy Spirit is my swirling hydrogen trail. If my heart is Jupiter, then the Angels and Saints are my 63 moons.... magically lighting its surface and changing its tone and temperature, just as our moon tugs gently at our oceans, pulling them in the right direction.