31 May Growing in Childlike Delight

When I was in my late elementary years, our family went to Six Flags for a day. At one point, my dad and brother went on a ride that was supposed to take them up really high in the air so that they were able to look over the whole park and then slowly bring them back down to the ground.

Except that this didn’t happen. Something got stuck mechanically and they ended up being suspended in the air over the park for a very long time. When they had finally gotten down safely, my brother and I bombarded my father with questions (which he was supposed to know the answer to, of course!): “What happened, Dad?” “Why couldn’t you come down?”

I don’t know if it was our persistent questioning or the act of being elevated indefinitely in the air that inspired my Dad, but he proceeded to launch into a riveting (and totally fictional) story  of what happened and why, bringing every possible person involved into fully formed character and action.

The story lasted for our entire hour-long car ride home and finished with gusto as we pulled into our driveway, perfectly timed to conclusion. Immediately, my brother and I cried out eagerly, “Tell it again, Dad!” To which my parents both burst into laughter at the impossibility of the request, due to the fact that he had made his story up as he went and there was no way he was going to do it again. Those facts didn’t matter, though – we were hooked!

It doesn’t take being a parent for long to discover that children thrive on repetition, consistency, and routine. Not that the routine can’t be broken, of course, and one also has to learn flexibility, but I pity the adult who has to put a young child to sleep without their “lovey” or “paci” that they “must have to fall asleep.”

The Eternal Appetite of Infancy

My husband is like many dads in his love to wrestle with his kids. After he has thrown them on the couch ten times in response to their shrieks of delight, they cry out, “Do it again, Dad!,” until he is completely exhausted and declares defeat.

This makes me think of G.K. Chesterton’s thought provoking quote:

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

I take Chesterton’s words as a challenge. What types of things do our children tell us to do over and over again? Certainly the things that they take the most delight in – those activities they want to engage in over and over again like a favorite song played on repeat.

Sometimes as adults we are able to cast off our restraints and join them. My three year old son is captivated by the stories of Beatrix Potter. His favorite is the classic “Tale of Peter Rabbit” which I (along with every member of our family) has read to him over 100 times.

While I’ve always appreciated her tales, something has happened in me as I read Peter’s story again and again. I began to enter into the story with my son, to anticipate what was coming next, and as a fellow writer, to let certain well-worded phrases roll off my tongue with delight. My favorite is this one: “His sobs were overheard by some friendly sparrows who flew to him in great excitement and implored him to exert himself.” I mean, who writes that like that for children anymore??

Our Heavenly Father delights in all of his works and longs for us to delight in them with him. Psalm 111:2 says, “Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.”

When we study a sunset, we take in its many shades, the way it splashes across the evening sky and highlights the trees, buildings, or shore below it. When we study a flower, we notice the softness of the petals, it’s perfect symmetry, vibrant color, and calming fragrance.

When we study God’s Words, we may read over them again and again until the message sinks deeply into our hearts and we receive them as food for our souls. And as we see God at work by the power of His Spirit in our lives and the lives of those around us and we cry out to him in childlike faith to, “Do it again, Dad!” I believe it is his great delight to respond.