Magical Love Socks

I try not to take it for granted. My son asks if we can wear our matching socks. It is a small thing. It is everything.

At the time I was already dressed to run with a group later but I assured him I would put on my socks with a polar bear wearing a red sweater that and says “BIG”. It is cute as hell that he wants to match and I will say yes to him until that fateful day when he suddenly wants anything but looking like his “daddy.” I suppose I will be “dad” then too. I shudder and move on.

Honestly it is too painful envisioning this shift in our relationship, so I focus on how grateful I am that he has asked. I pull on my socks in the afternoon and negotiate my outfit. There is not much that makes it work. “To hell with it,” I think as I add some lobster shorts in to the mix and go about my day grinning like a jackass because my son wants to wear the same socks. This is cloud-nine-shit for me!

It just so happens on the very same day that my son asked me to wear the matching socks, the group of guys I meet with read through Mark 12. This chapter is full of people asking Jesus all kinds of questions to try and trick him — what a bunch of bastards. Jesus answers all the questions so well that one of the scribes who has been listening nearby is moved to ask him, “Which commandment is the first of all.” Jesus responds with the infamous:

“The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12: 29-31

I have always loved this response from Jesus. He sums up one commandment in a most beautiful way and then adds the second, though he was asked for only one. The Old Ye Baldhead version goes like this: “The Lord our God is one. Love God with all you fucking have — everything. When you think you have loved enough dig a little deeper and love some more — every fucking ounce! Oh and love everyone around you as if they were yourself.”

Theologians, pastors, scribes, rabbis, teachers, religious leaders, idiots, and everyone else have argued for thousands of years what it means to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Blueprints are drawn up, lines are made, somehow actual battles are fought, and people disagree.

Today as I reflect back on the socks I am wearing, I wonder about what it means on, perhaps, a much more simple level. For me, my son wearing the same socks reflects a deep meaning of what our relationship means to him. I have always thought of the question of loving God from the standpoint of what I need to do, but here I am now wondering the most simple of questions.

Would God like to wear the same socks as me?

I almost instantly find those nagging tears looking to find their way into my eyes. I sit back in my chair and think, “What does it look like for me to ask that question? Or a question like that?” What is that question for me as an adult? Would God like to sit and have a coffee with me? Go for a run? Sing a song with me?

Honestly I am a bit perplexed by how flummoxed my heart is in trying to imagine being in a space where I might ask God to wear the same pair of socks as me. I smile about the simplicity of it all. I realize how badly I want to be a child with matching socks God can toss on. Mostly I think I want this because in all fairness, it can be difficult trying to express my love for God.

Maybe it is stupid or trite or foolish or something similar. But for today it seems the honest way for me to love God with all I have is to say:

“Hey daddy, do you want to wear that pair of matching socks we have?”

• So for me, especially in this experience, the image of God as my daddy is extremely moving. Sometimes the image of God as my mother or friend or other such options is equally important to me. I am adding this hear simply to admit that there may be some deep way you connect to the Holy Other that is anything but as a father type figure. However you may perceive God, ask for God to put on a matching pair of socks, or whatever works for you!