Since last night, I’ve roasted marshmallows, played hide and seek and had a pillow fight. I’ve been in prison, tamed lions and saved killer whales who were friendly and had fallen overboard. There have been bears who walk, pillows who talk, and lots of laughter. I’ve been a tickle monster, a gold medal champion and a poopyhead.
In fact, the only way I was able to get away to post this to the blog was by swallowing a magic pill that made me invisible to the prison guards. But I won’t have long, because the potion isn’t very strong and I can hear the footsteps of the munchkins coming.
So, from a location deep in the imagination of a child’s mind, let me challenge you – no, I triple dog dare you:
Grow up, but never grow old.
Sometimes as we age we get cranky and crusty. We get set in our ways and stuck in our routines, and so we read words in the Bible about how Jesus calls us to childlike faith and we shrug our shoulders, furrow our brows and mumble something under our breath about childish behavior.
I refuse. I want to mature without becoming a miser. I want to grow in stature without becoming a statue. I want to grow up still full of wonder instead of growing old just full of thunder.
There are things that we probably shouldn’t do as an adult that we did as kids. Running into a room full of people and pulling your shirt up over your head is cute as a kid, but it could get you some unwanted attention as an adult. But to grow up and still live the kind of fearless life that would never worry about what others might think before taking a risk? That’s what I want.
When my almost 3 year-old nephew woke up at 6:04 am today, I heard him talking even though there wasn’t anyone in his room to talk to (because all the others crazy ones were camping out in the living room). When I went to investigate, I found he wasn’t alone. There were 2 lions, a bear, a fish and a killer whale all on the bed with him. You could tell him they weren’t real, but I don’t think he would have believed you. There is something about this that must move God, because He also, from time to time, looks at things and sees them differently than other people. He once looked at a valley of bones and saw and army. He looked at enemies and saw broken people who needed forgiveness. He looked at you – and me – and saw value when others saw none.
This unrelenting desire to see the world as a playground or as a giant laboratory in which to perform countless experiments is a childlike quality that you and I must refuse to ever grow out of if we’re to see the fullness of what God wants to do in us.
We will all grow up, but we do not all have to grow old.
Give me, I pray, the heart of a child so that I might know the love of my Father. A Father who relishes the risky and applauds the audacious and who catches us when we try and fail and inspires us to try, imagine, and risk again.
Now, I beg you, I must take my leave. The potion has worn off and the guards are coming. It won’t be long before they find me and take me back to pris
