Little Red Ball, Little Red Ball...

... Just try to be a little red ball!

I found this quote on a fellow blogger's site (doxology):

"We are at Jesus' disposal. If he wants you to be sick in bed, if he wants you to proclaim His work in the street, if he wants you to clean the toilets all day, that's all right, everything is all right. We must say, 'I belong to you. You can do whatever you like.' And this is our strength, and this is the joy of the Lord." – Bl. Teresa of Calcutta

It reminds me that Blessed Theresa was under the patronage of (and was the namesake of) one of my favorite saints, Therese of the Child Jesus (the Little Flower). She has a great image to express the above:

“He has not allowed His creatures to do what they will but only what He wills. … I had offered myself to the Child Jesus to be His little plaything. I told Him not to treat me like one of those precious toys which children only look at and dare not touch, but to treat me like a little ball of no value, that could be thrown on the ground, kicked about, pierced, left in a corner, or pressed to His Heart just as it might please Him. In a word I wished to amuse the Holy child and to let Him play with me as He fancied. Here indeed He was answering my prayer. In Rome Jesus pierced His little plaything. He wanted to see what was inside… and when satisfied, He let it drop and went to sleep. … Dear Mother, you can imagine the sadness of the little ball lying neglected on the ground! And yet it continued to hope against hope.” – St. Therese

This is not to say with Narnia's Tashbaans that 'Aslan is not a tame lion' and therefore unpredictable (akin to the Islamic conception of God as so completely beyond us that even analogy fails; God is not good as we think of good, and could actually command something evil in our eyes because He is God). No - and unfortunately, we don't even have to look further than your average university's philosophy department to find the similar disappearance of analogy.

Instead, these blessed women realize that the Lord is good, good as we know it and, by analogy, greater than any good we know. Not beyond good as outside of it (so that it could also be evil as we see it), but to our good and beyond (echoes of Toy Story in my head...). God is good, good, good, ad infinitem. And since He is so good, and all-powerful, and takes care of even the lilies in the valley and birds of the air (echoes of Scriptures and a recent news story in my head...), how much more will He care for us? We ought to trust Him like these saintly women.
Even when we're 'neglected' or thrown around.

Just be a little red ball.... (echoes)

NB: St. Therese's autobio can be found here.