To Be Like a Child

Both of us were sitting in window seats. Both of us were waiting for the jet to finish taxiing and take off. She was sitting directly in front of me. She was probably between three and six years old. She stared out the window and  I couldn't help but hear the excited exclamations she made as she observed what was on the other side. She wondered at the lava rock (yes we were in Hawaii). She was excited when the plane begin to pick up speed. Me? I was a silent "boring" adult. Here I sat watching a little girl pour forth excitement and joy over the little things that have become so routine and "normal" to me. To me it was nothing to write home about. To her it was thrilling and sensational. She made me think about being that way in life.

I can imagine that God loves it when I live like that little girl, when I'm excited and thrilled to the nines over the smallest little gifts. He gives me little gifts every day and so often I take them for granted, let alone treat them as if they were the best thing since whipped cream. But I want to be as excited about life and its small joys as that little girl was about a plane picking up speed. I want to find joy in every little thing. I want to be childlike.

What if I lived life with unhindered excitement over the small things and the big things God did in my life? What if I never contained or neatly packaged my joy? What if I was vulnerable and childlike enough that I simply let joy bubble uncontrollably out of my cup of life spilling onto everyone around me? What would life look like? What would my life look like if I lived every day like a child?