Brandenburg Gate

Miles Johnson

MA, LPC

October 6, 2022

When I was 11 or 12, my family lived in West Germany. We took a trip by train to Berlin in East Germany to see the sites - Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, et cetera. Back then, Germany was divided.
Being a Black family of four, it was obvious to most Germans that we must be American. As we stood in the queue waiting to go on the Brandenburg Gate tour, we knew that the Germans around us were listening to our family conversation. (Many, if not most, Germans are multilingual and can also speak English.) The German family behind us consisted of a mother, a father, and a little girl about age two. She was holding on to her father's hand and sucking her thumb as the line slowly shuffled ahead. Now and then, she would release her father's hand. She took a few steps away to pick up a feather and then returned to holding her father's hand. Next, she let go of her father's hand to pick up a coin from the ground. Then she let go of her father's hand to splash briefly in a puddle.

When she came back to the queue, she didn't realize that the line had moved forward in her absence, and she simply grabbed the hand that was where she thought her father would be. She grabbed my father’s hand mistakenly. My father, the girl’s father, and everyone else saw this immediately. We all smiled silently, waiting for the girl to realize her mistake. Soon the girl noticed that the adults were silent and looked up to see why everyone was so quiet. She saw her hand in my father’s and everyone smiling with mirth at her. She quickly removed her hand and went back to her father.

Despite all our perceived differences, we all shared in this moment of communal merriment. We were not representing The East or the West. We were not American or German or even Black or White. Our sense of humor had made us just human.

Christians often say that our faith in God is rock solid. Too often, we let go of God's unchanging hand to be distracted by the shiny things of the world - thinking that we can always return to God. Sometimes when we return, we're not holding on to God's hand. We're holding on to someone else - or something else. We should strive to have childlike faith and trust God wherever he leads like we were 2 years old, holding on to our parents’ hand.

We think we are adults, but not compared to God. I've heard my elders say that the Lord watches and protects babies and fools. I often find myself wondering which category I fit into. Am I going to be God's child, or will I be a fool today? I think we all should fathom this daily.