It wasn’t just John the Baptist. I’m sure that every mother on holding her child asks, “What, then, will this child be?” Every child has an unlimited potential. Which is why the message of the prophet Malachi struck me. The prophet is going to refine and purify the people, to put them the path of reform, to prepare for the coming of the Lord by turning “the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” Children turn to their fathers to learn the wisdom, the traditions that make them who they are. Fathers turn to their children to provide them with the freedom to soar, to move beyond the limits of the past. Roots and wings.
