Life through the eyes of a child

Having our daughter and grandson living with us is a beautiful blessing and I've discovered that my grandson helps me understand what life should be like. The world is a wonderful place for Real, a place where there are people who love  him and are always willing to stop for a moment to tickle him, hug him, or make strange and funny faces and noises at him. Got to wonder at the adults who are making the faces and noises :)
Real is always ready to laugh, at least when he's not hungry or his diaper isn't too full, and he's always willing to discover something fascinating and new. A dandelion ready to let go of its seeds is the best toy, at least until the seeds are off, a squirrel running along the branch outside our living room window is the most entertaining thing in his life at that moment. Running and bumping into our dog Babette and trying to grab her tail as she runs away provides moments of pure joy. Then, when Real runs out of energy for a few moments, he comes with his arms out high to be held and cuddled with his bottle until his energy and curiosity is replenished.
Imagine our faith life like that, an endless curiosity about Jesus and the world, a desire to explore and discover what lies around the next corner, grabbing pleasure as it comes by, then slowing down and watching as creation happens right in front of us. Imagine where our first reaction is trust, where we head out into the world every morning with our eyes wide open; looking forward to experience what lies ahead of us in the day and excited about the opportunities to see God around us and with us. Imagine a place where people are willing to stop, offer a hug, a smile or even a laugh with complete strangers because they fascinate us and we want to know more about them. And then, when we get tired, we stop and turn to God with our spiritual arms held up, ready to be held and hugged for a while until our energy is replenished again.
My grandchildren have opened up the world to me again, showing me how amazing it really is. It's too bad that we so easily become cynical, that many people purposely cultivate a cynical view of life because its 'cool'. I'm becoming child-like again and life holds much more joy again. I think Jesus knew what he was talking about when he told us we need to be more like little children. Try it, I think you'll like it!

Eating and God

I love the Food Network. There is something wonderful about watching people who love food create these wonderful dishes and share their love with us through the screen. Then being able to go online and try them myself is one of those small precious gifts that make life full. To be in the kitchen and taking all the various ingredients and mixing them together, adjusting the amounts to suit the tastes of the people who are going to be eating it is one of the most relaxing ways to spend an afternoon. It's like being on a mini retreat, connecting back to the basics of life: family, friends, food and God; after-all, he's the one who created all the ingredients and placed all their potential in them so that if you put them all together the right way, you can bring a smile of pleasure to almost anyone's face. You meet God in the washing, the cutting and mixing as you notice the different textures, the colours, the smells and aromas of the food. I imagine God smiling as he was creating the various plants, structuring their textures, giving them their colours, and putting into each plant the potential of how they will interact with other plants, whether flowers, roots, stalks, leaves or even bark to create new and unique tastes that the people still to be created with discover through experimentation and imagination.
I love cooking for others and then sitting back and watching them enjoy the food. As a church we gather together regularly to eat with each other in pot-lucks where we are able to cook for each other and then sit together and share what we've brought while being able to eat some of the love that others have brought. Now I will be honest and confess that dessert is my favourite course of the pot-luck, though I do need to exercise some strict discipline on myself as I approach the tempting offerings on the table.
Food is a powerful way of drawing people together. Last night my wife and I had the great blessing of being invited out by good friends to join them at a small neighbourhood restaurant with a small jazz band. There is something special about eating together, about sharing food, even in being gently forced to eat a piece of baklava I was trying to exercise discipline in not eating, though I must admit I did not put up much of a fight! The conversation flows around the different courses, the words interspersed with the eating and sharing of the food. There is a great deal of sharing and caring and joy that happens in these conversations. This morning, as I thought about the joy of last night, I thought about Jesus inviting us to his meal, inviting us to gather around his table to share the food he provides. This meal is also filled with conversation between our host Jesus and us his guests, and I'm appreciating  more and more how this meal shapes our relationship with Jesus and God. It draws us closer to each other and to God as we gather around the table, and the conversation is filled with sharing and caring and joy. There is a lot more that could be said, but the image of going to heaven and joining Jesus at his banquet table is gaining more meaning and becoming more special for me all the time.

Family and Knowing Each Other

Last week my wife Joyce and I were able to spend a few days with some of our children and grandchildren. Living over 6 hours away from them means that I don't get to see them nearly as often as I would like. The older grandchildren know that when grandpa comes it's time to get tickled, do the roller-coaster and earthquake in the big rocking chair, and get horsy rides; all the fun grandpa stuff. The younger grandchildren are always a little more restrained at first because grandpa isn't there very often so it's almost as if we need to get to know each other again. Thankfully, as they get older this happens less and less. Wednesday evening, as we walked in the door, Carysa, our daughter Marie's youngest girl, who was really shy last time I came in February, came running up wanting to be lifted up and hugged! However Madison, our son Jacob's youngest daughter, kind of looked at me and figured mommy was a safer bet, at least for the first evening anyway. By the time we left on Saturday, even Madison was comfortable with grandpa again. It took time together again to build that relationship of trust, to get to know each other again.
It strikes me that it's the same thing in our relationship with God. I often hear people say that they don't have time to engage in devotions during the day; that life is so busy that taking time to connect with God through reading the Bible or praying or getting together with a few other followers of Jesus to learn more about who Jesus is and what he taught. I'm thinking that their relationship with God must be similar to my relationship with my grandkids; they know I'm somewhere, but I don't have much impact on their lives except for a few days at a time where we get to play and rock and sit with each other. We love each other, but don't really know each other all that well.
When our relationships are based on occasional get togethers, how much impact do we really have on each other? I don't have much influence or impact on my grandkids' lives because I'm not part of their daily, or even weekly lives, I'm just a visitor in their lives. Their parents have the most influence in their lives and I pray that my influence on my children's lives carries into my grandchildren's lives, especially in their relationship with God. But as I look within my own family, I'm reminded that I also have a Father that I need to visit with regularly, who wishes to have an impact on my life, to show me what the new life through Jesus looks like; Jesus, our oldest brother who came here to lead us back to our Father and heal that relationship which had been broken. Father is always there, waiting for me to want to visit. He sent us a beautiful letter to help us know him better, but wants more personal visits so we can get to know each other even better. The big thing is it needs time, time out of our so often busy lives, and yet time that we can't afford not to set aside if we really want to experience what it is to be his daughter or son.
Are you only a visitor with our Father; do you want more? Does following Jesus really make a difference in your life; change who you are and impact your values and how you live? It's only going to happen if you have time together; a choice you make.