i read something this morning in Augustine's Confessions that i felt compelled to reflect on. Augustine was recounting his early days of life and writes "i began to smile; first in sleep, then in waking..." i thought first of the smile that drapes quickly across the face of an infant when they sleep. there are few things in life more amazingly than seeing the smile of a sleeping infant...even more so if you happen to be the parent of that smiling infant. the smile on a sleeping baby, is the kind of grin one has when s/he knows something that others don't know. like grins you have when a loved one is trying to guess the gift they you have bought for them. a smile of knowing. perhaps in the smile of an infant there is a hint that they know something grown ups don't know. i bet the infant jesus smiled as he slept...because there was so much he knew that we did not. there was such a surprise coming...that he would give....for us....yeah, i'm sure he smiled.
i believe Augustine may have been hinting at another reality that is true of those, like himself, who found faith in Jesus. as sleeping persons we smiled, but later we were awake- spiritually awake. and now awake we smile because we well ...we are awake and He has made us that way.
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