Like a child…
I hope you had a fun Fourth of July. The weather here was delightful once the rain cleared out. Russ and I took advantage of the lower temps and cloud cover and tried kayaking at a nearby state park in the early afternoon.
After that the sun was coming out and we took a nice bike ride, grilled some chicken I had been marinating and then loaded yard chairs into the pickup and headed out to the farm land to watch fireworks put on by the community down the way from us.
As we sat in the bed of the truck, along the country road, waiting for dusk to make way to dark, we watched families play in the fields that had been cleared between two patches of corn. Adults had set up yard chairs and kids with glow sticks around their necks and wrists tossed a football and cartwheeled and ran freely catching fireflies.
Aren’t kids wonderful? I would be hesitant to run in that field for fear of snakes and bug bites, but they had not a care in the world.
Recently I was looking at some older photos and laughing again at the way Caroline and her first grade friends smile such big, broad smiles with their front teeth missing. We would be aghast if our teeth were missing, but they just grin so happily.
I was remembering them standing up on the big stage at school, all wiggles and giggles in concert finery and waving madly at their family when a scan of the audience finally reveals the location of their family and friends.
Caroline will cartwheel down the aisle at Aldi’s and never think a thing of who might be watching her. They get up to bat or field a ball with not an ounce of the angst I feel when I am trying to tee off and there is a group waiting behind us.
And I think that is why Jesus urges us to come to Him as children.
No consciousness of self, just full of joy and the sense of being loved and the exuberance of loving back.
Grinning our toothless smiles and cartwheeling into His arms…such a fine way to live.
Blessings friends.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
You are deeply and dearly loved <3