The Delight of a Child | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Delight of a Child | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marlene Bonney
04/23/18
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The toddler sat on his grandmother’s lap in the grass while they both gazed up at the sky. He was still baby soft while she was gray and wrinkled, but they were like two peas in a pod in spirit. Mimi became part of his world, a grownup playmate with pretend stories to tell and an imagination to match and she became a child again in his presence.

“Jacob, look! Look at the squirrels chasing each other up that tree? Do you think they’re playing tag?”

He watched in uncharacteristic stillness, awestruck by their antics. A robin hopped through the blades of grass, moving her head up and down like a youngster bobbing for apples. A worm dangled from her beak, charming Jacob as he tried to mimic the bird’s stance. His eyes returned to the cloud-filled sky.

“Mimi, see? See the elephant up there! He’s floating on marshmallows!” and, as a train sounded in the distance, “Listen, Mimi—a choo-choo train! Woo-woo. . .Woo-woo!” chugging along the sidewalk and stomping his clogs like a steam engine clacking along the tracks. . .

Everything is full of joy and wonder for little tykes. They see magic around every corner, from the blown dandelion fluff to soap bubbles in their bathwater. Things are fresh and exciting because they are new—unlike the jaded outlook of adults who no longer see the miracles all around them. Always curious, they demand answers, cry and laugh in total abandon, and freely give their love away. They run joyously through the rain, catch snowflakes on their tongues, and jump into piles of raked leaves in sheer delight. They chase after butterflies, bury their noses in soft flower petals, and make castles in the sand. They run, jump, and twirl, experimenting with their growing bodies and bend and twist just because they can.

Children, if left to their own devices, choose mismatched clothing to wear, just because they like the way they feel and are of favorite colors and designs because they have not yet learned to care about what others think. They don’t worry about society’s rules. They are not burdened with thinking about all the things that could go wrong. Their imaginations are limitless because everything is exciting, their world full of spontaneous possibilities (that can actually lead to totally unique ideas).

To youngsters, there are not seven wonders of the world. There are seven thousand. They catch their breaths when they see dazzling fireworks in the darkened sky, stand with mouths open as ocean waves knock them over, and marvel at the fireflies that blink on and off in the dusk of the evening like sparks thrown from a magician’s hat. They spend hours searching through the grass for four-leaf clovers, undaunted that the odds of finding one is one in ten thousand.

STOP! NOTICE! ENJOY!, their attitudes shout like beacons of hope to any who will notice. Their sole objective is to play, but in the process, they learn, they experiment, they adventure to unlikely places, they discover, they ponder. While we teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about. Oh, the innocence of a child! The diversity of God’s creation shines through on their little faces as surely as His sun rises and sets. In the beginning, they are fearless, they don’t judge, and they don’t make things complicated.

Is it any wonder that as Jesus smiled down at a child’s expectant face as the little one pointed gleefully up at a rainbow climbing across the horizon,

“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Mark 10:14-15

When we, as adults, can no longer appreciate the amazing “little” miracles of daily life, we become blind and deaf to His wonder and majesty and the simple joys He has showered upon us. If we can no longer let go of self-imposed inhibitions, if we can no longer be spontaneous or see the incredible diversity in nature of things great AND small, our creativity is stunted and we become stagnant.

STOP! NOTICE! ENJOY!,

“When I grow up I want to be train conductor. What do you want to be when you grown up, Mimi?”

“A great-grandmother, Jacob dear, a great-grandmother.”

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