There are milestones in our lives when we make room for things. When we fall in love we make room for another person. When we step out into the world we make room for a job, responsibilities and expectations. When we learn a new, big idea, we make room for a fresh perspective. Even with the deaths of people we know, we make room for their memories and the shadowy spaces they occupy in our minds.
Most of the time we simply adjust to the new power or presence in our lives without a lot of planning and conscious decision-making. We just do it. We just see, sense and react. The way we once were is now over. The way we are now is the new reality.
There is a new reality in my life named Sam. He is my first grandchild, born to my daughter, born into a clan of admiring relatives, and all our lives are changed because of him. Within moments of the news of his impending arrival, we all subconsciously and happily made room for Sam.
Labor Day weekend will never be the same again, because it will forever be the weekend of Sam’s birthday. Christmas will never be same, either. In fact, all nights and weekends forevermore will be flavored by the knowledge that Sam is out there somewhere—on the phone, playing a ballgame, learning lines for a school play, learning to drive, living the ups and downs of his life—always there.
Skeptics of the Christian life have long questioned the idea of an all-knowing, all-loving God--a heavenly Father who cares for us all. Becoming a grandfather provides me with evidence anew that God is real, and his mind is never away from us.
As we arrive in this world, in fact from the moment of conception, God simply makes room. He does not have to think about it. He just does it. We are continually in his heart and mind, because we exist in his creation. He does it easily, just like we do, only on a grander scale.
It is comforting that, just as I made room for Sam, so did God. I am so looking forward to watching the ways that God will reveal himself to Sam, and the ways that Sam will awaken to the knowledge of God. I pray for the day that Sam will recognize that there is a space in his soul that only God can occupy, and he will invite him in to fill it.
Of course there are times when we don't make room in our lives. There are times when we reject, when we elbow people away, and simply refuse to acknowledge their presence. Most of our problems with anger, prejudice, violence and greed come from times when our sense of self is simply too large to make room for anyone or anything else. No room is an anti-God state of mind.
But making room--it’s the meaning of life.
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