Love child: Peter Leeming has a reflection for Epiphany
‘This love of ours must now deepen and mature.’
‘Nothing is so beautiful as a child who falls asleep while
saying its prayers, God says.
I tell you there is nothing so beautiful in the world.’
Whenever I read this poem by the French poet Charles Péguy (1873-1914), it arouses powerful memories for me of that precious experience long ago, when we sat at the bedside of our small children as they made ready for sleep. In my reveries I find myself back once more with our children’s wide-eyed attention to the details of a bedtime story, and the lengthy, ritual preparation which had to be completed beforehand – all those things to be tidied away out of sight and mind, or gathered up as cherished companions for the night; that beloved doll with a missing arm or the inseparable cuddly toy. I have a cherished image, too, of one small daughter carefully closing her bedroom cupboards each evening before climbing into bed, her sure protection against all those mysterious things which lurk by day in the shadowy recesses of our busy world, but which can emerge at night to haunt our sleep. Undoubtedly, a message there for us parents, too!
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