Eye-to-eye

When I was a kid, a little kid, I remember feeling small whenever I would go somewhere crowded with my folks or other grownups.  Think about it, if you’re a little dude among a bunch of people who are more than two feet taller than you, it’s a bit imposing.

Spending last weekend in New York with my aunt and uncle and cousins, I was reminded about situations like this.  On what seemed like every Saturday morning in the Bronx, my grandpa would take me on his normal rounds.  For him, that meant walking.  That man walked everywhere, and for a relatively old man at that time (he was in his late-50s or early 60s … that felt old at the time) he walked FAST.  My little legs struggled to keep up with him.  Many times, the plan was to head on the subway downtown to his work … though I don’t really recall the reason.  I just remember loving going with him.  That is, other than when we’d make the inevitable, regular stop at OTB … Off-Track Betting.  This was one of many storefront places where people could bet on horse races all over New York.  Sort of a poor man’s Las Vegas.

I loved hanging out with my grandpa, but hated OTB.  For one thing, everyone in the place smoked.  It was awful.  I can’t imagine being in a more disgusting place, breathing in that cruddy air.  But moreover, it was always noisy and crowded with grownups.  Let’s face it, this was probably not the best, most logical place to bring a five or six year-old.  What was probably worse, I always felt so small and not particularly safe.  A kid can feel pretty exposed and lost among such a crowd, whose first and foremost concern was yelling at the image of some horse on a 19-inch monitor in the hopes the horse would hear, be more motivated, and run faster.  Even when people did talk to me, they were talking down at me … I was small and they were adults, after all.  It didn’t create a positive encounter or an inviting relationship.

As an adult I’ve had many experiences interacting with kids as a sports coach, a Sunday school teacher, and of course a parent.  Among the most important lessons I’ve learned in those contexts is the importance of interacting with kids at their level.   Hence, most times when I’m engaging with a child, I crouch or lunge down to their level to try to interact with them at their eye level.  It’s a safer-feeling way to connect with them, eliminates some of the imposing elements of adult-child communication, and demonstrates a love and care for them in a way that talking to them from a few feet above them doesn’t.

This recollection came to me this week as I read through my weekly Old Testament reading plan (through Zephaniah 3, Haggai 1 – 2, Zechariah 1 – 4, Psalms 115 – 121, and Jeremiah 16 – 22).  In particular, a passage in Psalms 116 caught my attention and brought a cool parallel to light.  Verses 1 – 2 reminded me about some of God’s attributes that convey His loving, caring attention in a way that moved me.  These verses say …

I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy.  Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!

I love how it describes the way that God interacts with us, the way He wants to connect with us.  My favorite part … “He bends down to listen” … was such a vivid word picture for me.  I think about what it means that He is willing to bend down to our level to “hear [our] voice and [our] prayer for mercy.” 

It means He actually wants to meet us at our eye level … remember one of the reasons Jesus came to this earth was to relate to us, to bend all the way down from heaven to the human level.  The comfort we can draw from that is profound … that He would stop and bend down to our level.

It also connotes a safe-feeling way to communicate with us … let’s face it, God is BIG.  The Creator of the universe must be.  There are aspects of who He is that make it feel overwhelming at times because of what He could do if He chose to.  He could just decide that we don’t need to exist anymore, and poof!  We’d be gone.   Instead, He chooses to demote Himself to our level so we can feel the safety of His eye-to-eye presence.  In so doing, He wipes away the imposing feeling that His holiness and His righteousness could otherwise impart.

Finally, it evidences His immense love for us … His Fatherly care and adoration for us.  It seems to me that we talk about God’s love but we aren’t always attuned enough to Him to feel His love, or willing / able to see physical evidence of His love (notwithstanding that it is undeniably there at all times). He says, “no problem,” and bends down to our eye-to-eye level to show His love to us firsthand.

The next time we feel lost, or scared about the bigness of what we’re going through, let’s remember that among all those big issues, we have a big God who is taking the time and spending the energy to bend down to meet us, eye-to-eye, to lovingly listen to our cares and hear our prayers.   He doesn’t want us to feel small and overwhelmed, but comforted, loved and understood.  In the times when He lowers Himself and becomes small enough to bend to our level, I think that’s when He most unequivocally shows His bigness.

Grateful He’s willing to be at our level,

MR