My daughter’s new doll had not been out of the box more than a day before our beloved family dog took a large bite out of the doll’s right hand. My first thought: Great, now I need to replace it. My second thought: No. Here’s a chance to teach my daughter that we should love and play with everyone – regardless of the shape of their hands.
The lesson was an easy one for my daughter. She noticed the injury, but her love for the doll remained unchanged.
Keeping the doll was an exercise in teaching myself about what really matters. It’s a process spiritual writer Richard Rohr calls “shadowboxing” – living in the “liminal” space between our true selves and the selves we are attempting to present to the world. “Instead of ego-confirmation,” he encourages “struggling with the dark side of things, calling the center and so-called normalcy into creative question.”
I can’t help but think that if Jesus were choosing between dolls, the perfect, plastic-wrapped one still in the box wouldn’t be of much interest. But the one that’s stared down a canine’s incisors and made it out alive? That sounds like a toy Jesus might be interested in.
This message is excerpted from “Doll is loved, even though disfigured” by Sarah Carson from the February 11, 2019, blog of the Women of the ELCA. Today we commemorate the Martyrs of Japan, 1597.
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