Blessed are the Pure of Heart

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. [Matthew 5:8]

"All the Little Lemurs"

All little Lemurs love to play. They play all the day and every day they play. Why any day that a little Lemur doesn’t play is a bad day for a baby Lemur. Little Lemurs know hundreds of games. They know hundreds of games because they make up dozens of games every day. Sometimes they play a game that has no rules, no objective and nobody knows when it ends or who ever wins. The idea is just to play, play, play, play, play. Mommies of little Lemurs know their babies are healthy when they play from the moment they wake up until the moment they lay in their cribs to sleep and when they are asleep, they dream of playing.

But the mommy of little Lloyd Lemur was worried. Lloyd didn’t seem to want to run out into the field to run and jump and play with the other little Lemurs. He didn’t want to climb up and down hills and rocks and fallen trees and spring out at his friends chasing them or being chased or sometimes not even knowing which but knowing it was all great clean fun. Lloyd had a friend named Levi. Levi and Lloyd loved to be in secret. They hid from the other Lemurs and whispered all the time. They had special ways of walking and wore special things on their ears and skin to make them look like they were in a secret society that was much better than the community of fun loving Lemurs that played in the field every day.

Lloyd wasn’t always this way. But he and Levi started having secrets and before long, that’s all they wanted to do. They stayed inside whispering and making up codes and they never exercised so lots of time Lloyd felt sick. This was hard for him because nobody was ever sick because everybody lived pure, open happy lives so nobody understood how he felt. Levi and Lloyd loved to make plans that nobody knew about. They always seemed to have something cooked up and no matter how much Lloyd’s sister Lexy Lemur begged, Lloyd said she couldn’t be in the club because it had to be a secret. He even pretended there was something more holy and special about being in his secret club with its strange rituals and vows of silence.

Lloyd and Levi never got any exercise and nobody talked to them because they talked nonstop about their secret club but wouldn’t tell the other Lemurs about it because it was a secret. Lexy Lemur was worried about her brother. She remembered when Lloyd ran and laughed and played with her and the other baby Lemurs all day long and never had a care in the world. He was by far the silliest, happiest Lemur of them all before the secret club.

Then came the nightmares. Lloyd started waking up with terrible dreams. Dreams of deep dark monsters coming to get him and nobody could help him because he was in a secret club with the monsters. He woke up at night crying from the dreams and Lexy Lemur ran to him.

“Lloyd you are not happy and carefree any more. What happened? Your secret club has made you all worried and scared and dark inside. You know all good little Lemurs have a pure love of play. Where is your purity Lloyd?” Asked Lexy. The next day she took him out into the field when all the little Lemurs were leaping and laughing and screaming in joy but Lloyd just sat on his bottom on the ground and cried.

“I have lost my Lemur purity Lexy. I am a lost Lemur.” He moaned.

“What happened in your club? You always seemed to have plans with the club and Lemurs don’t plan Lloyd, Lemurs play.” She asked.

“Yes, we had lots of secret plans. We played jokes on the other Lemurs so they would fall off of things or things would happen to them and then we would laugh. We had all kinds of secret plans and games we did that nobody knew about and schemes. I was a scheming Lemur Lexy. I don’t want to be a scheming Lemur, I want to be playing, laughing Lemur. What can I do?” He cried.

So they went to the wise old owl who looked after all of the Lemurs. There Lloyd poured out his soul to the wise old owl in hopes he would have some magic to make him pure and simple again.

“Well there is a magic but it’s not from me little Lemur.” Mr. Owl confessed. “God created all Lemurs to be pure in heart. But you have used up your purity Lloyd.” Said Mr. Owl and Lloyd started to cry loudly. “Now stop that, there is hope. If you will pray that the spirit of purity come inside you from God, he can change you into a completely new Lemur, one that is pure and happy inside again.”

“Oh yes, yes, Mr. Owl. Please teach me how to ask God for that.”

So Mr. Owl and Lexy and Lloyd all prayed and the miracle did happen. His dark schemer Lemur heart was filled with God and he discovered all over again that the love of God is what made Lemurs happy and playful in the first place. He forgot all about having secrets and worries and how to just run and play and trust God with everything else and he was a brand new creature. And before long, he once again had regained his title of silliest Lemur in the whole field.

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” [1 Peter 1:23-25]