I recently had some friends over for a pool party: 4 families, 8 adults, 11 kids – all boys. It was loud!
While observing all the little boys play, I was struck with profound admiration for their ability to meander to the pace of the world’s oldest and slowest snails. Serious. No joke. The pool dimensions are a mere 40 feet by 20 feet in length, yet, it took all 11 boys an entire hour to make it from one end of the pool to the other. You think I’m kidding. I am not. I timed it. I even had all 8 adults jealously pondering how kids manage to find absolutely nothing to do to be the most entertaining “thing to do” on the face of the planet.
Their movement resembles: do something, stop. Do something, stop. Do something, stop. Repeat.
Life for them is all about noticing, discovering, appreciating and adventuring. GENUIS!
As I observed the beauty of this child-like wonder, I silently prayed for my own imagination to blossom – that I too would find beetles and sticks and grass blades and clappy games and deck rolling and water bobbing to be just as amusing and fulfilling.
Faith like a child is a beautiful thing and us adults could do with a little less of go, go, go… and a little more of do, stop, do.
”Just ask the animals, and they will teach you. Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. Speak to the earth, and it will instruct you. Let the fish in the sea speak to you. For the life of every living thing is in his hand, and the breath of every human being.” -Job 12:7-8;10
