Papa has need of you as well!
One day, as I was working with my brother François on the renovation of a building, his four children (aged two to seven) all came up at once and started complaining to their father, “Dad, we haven’t anything to do!”
The four of them began to whine and whimper in the way that children do so well. “Give us some work, Papa. Give us work to do, Papa! Please, give us something to do!”
My brother had enough to do, supervising the work site, without having to trouble himself over those four kids. But at that moment, I saw the miracle of God’s grace at work in the heart of a father and in the hearts of his children.
He said to them, “Don’t cry! Papa has need of you as well!” In an instant, he gave each of them work to do according to their capacity. He asked them to gather up all the little pieces of wood that were lying around in a building undergoing repairs and to sweep the floors.
Immediately, the children set to work helping their papa. They started picking up the pieces of wood. It was as if each one was learning how to work by doing the work itself.
The oldest one, with broom in hand, was saying, “This will be a big help to Mama!” And without another word, their work became a game.
I was absorbed in my own tasks that day, but the phrase Father, give us work to do kept repeating itself in my mind. It became like a prayer inside me until, suddenly, it sounded like the prayer of all the children of the world:
“Father, give us work to do!” That phrase became in me the prayer to all those fathers who are in a position to give their children “something to do!” I could see shining forth the ingenuity of a paternal love that permits each child to begin to work, to become “useful,” to taste the joy of serving others.
It was as if I heard the voice of the Child Jesus at Nazareth, “Father, do you have work for me today?” I contemplated Jesus growing in his relationship with his heavenly Father by turning towards his foster-father Joseph and saying to him, “Give me work to do.”
Finally, I could see Jesus growing in the hearts of all the children of the world, because they could say with confidence to their earthly fathers, “Father, give me work …”, knowing that their father’s love would not fail to find a place for them in his labor of love.
[Photo: Fr. Louis Labrecque holding maple syrup sap bucket]
