I was given the opportunity to lead the Scottish Parliament in a time of reflection his afternoon.

Presiding Officer,

Thank you for the privilege given to me today to lead the Parliament in a time of reflection.

Perhaps I'm here because at one level I'm simply a parish minister, or perhaps because I head up the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland's Committee on Church Without Walls, or maybe it is because of my work with the Vine Trust among Street Children in Peru. For whatever reason, I'd like us to focus on the child as an image for our reflection today.

If the truth were told, we are all just children at heart. We may have important job titles and we may have complicated and challenging decisions to make. We may have expensive clothes, and have an air of authority.We may have grown older and tougher and even become hardened by the knocks of political life, but deep down inside us all, there is a child still waiting to reach its full potential.

A child that was never allowed to be:
Just a child.
A child with a name, A name perhaps, Never spoken out loud anymore.
A child lost.
A child disappointed.
A child full of dreams
A child put down.
A child that was once loved.
A child longing to be recognised.
A child angry.
A child always alone.
A child afraid
A child as stubborn as we are today
A child that could once play and laugh and even, dare I say, trust.
A child that could fuss and fight and then make up and be a friend.

Somewhere along the way we lose ourselves, we take upon ourselves other people's personas; we play to the gallery of life. We discover the tricks that make people want us on their team. But we have all lost something; there is a part within us that is empty. We are in search of the child we could never be.

So we seek to live, even project our childhood experience onto the lives of today's children. Sometimes for better and sometimes for ourselves. Searching to be a grown up has become a struggle to survive. And what has grown up is not always what makes grown-ups. We never meant to become the schemer, the bully, and the doctor of spin.

Perhaps we need to reconnect with that child again, take care of the unfinished business that we've buried deep inside ourselves. Jesus once said, "Unless you become a little child you will never enter the Kingdom of God.' Lord!Your Kingdom? It sounds a bit upside down.

People before process; Wisdom before knowledge; Integrity before politics; A child before an adult.

Lord,
A Kingdom like that
Could inspire a nation like Scotland.
Lord,Help me make a start again.
Perhaps be born again?
Just like a little child.
In a new year
With a new beginning
As new person.