A Creed for the Child within us All

We believe in the Child within us.

We believe in the qualities of childhood,

in openness and wonder,

in trust and spontaneity,

in wholeness and immediacy,

in simplicity and playfulness.

We believe that God is born anew in every birth,

and that her heart beats in the heart of every child.

 

We believe that the Child within us is wounded.

We believe that until these wounds are healed,

we will grow more slowly,

love more fearfully,

trust more hesitantly, play more seriously,

and see no miracles.

We believe that God is forever young and new,

always loving us into the carefree children we once were,

and forever will be into eternity.

 

We believe in the Eternal Child,

the unlikely prophet in our midst.

We believe that our tired world can yet be redeemed, by trusting,

in magic and mystery,

in fantasy and imagination,

in letting go and letting be,

in the impossible dream.

We believe that the music of childhood will once again empower

dead limbs to move and cosmic feet to dance all night.

 

We believe that the Cosmic Child is the heart of God – that the Word

became Child – and forever will be.

We believe God is weeping

when innocence is invaded,

when young trust is betrayed,

when young openness is abused

when young wonder is ridiculed, and when green vision is met with dry cynicism.

We believe, too, that is we grow truly younger as we grow older

That we will build more surely the Playground of Eternity

Where all creation will run wild with God

Forever and ever. Amen

 

(Written by Daniel more than thirty years ago)