Our Father is Younger than We
Children tend to live in the splendor and wonder of the moment.
Children dream bigger, dream better and their curiosity is relentless.
As adults it’s easy to stop dreaming. We take enough hits, read enough news, experience enough loss and we succumb to what is called “survival mode.”
The results? We allow fear, cynicism, narrow-mindedness to form our thinking. We stop dreaming, believing and the practical takes over the strategies of how we will navigate life.
Children dream big until those around them tell them, at best, to play it safe, or at worst, that they are not smart enough or talented enough to think outside the lines.
Children learn fear. They learn narrow-mindedness. They have to be told they are not smart enough. Even though they are.
As adults, not only do we have so much to learn from children, but we also have a huge responsibility for how we form the thinking of children.
As the poet Dr. J.A. Holmes said, “Never tell anyone it can’t be done. God may have been waiting for centuries for somebody ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing.” Dr. J.A. Holmes
Do you recall those innocent days as a child when you felt unafraid to attempt new things?
Do you recall the days as a child where your curiosity made you lose track of time and you begged for the day to never end because you had so much more to dream and learn about.
Researchers have discovered that little children laugh more than 300 times a day. By the time we reach adulthood, the number drops to less than 20.
When my daughter was around 5, I asked her what her favorite color was. She put her little hands on her face, thinking hard about the question and then erupted, “Daddy, my favorite color is red, blue, yellow, orange, green and black.”
She hadn’t yet learned that she couldn’t have more than one favorite color.
So why do we go from a full-color children’s world to a rusty, rutted, routine adult world?
There’s a sign on an Alaskan highway that reads, “Choose your rut carefully—you’ll be in it for the next 200 miles.”
Is this what God intended? Is our world supposed to shrink into a predictable, boring rut as we grow older?
Shouldn’t growing older make us bolder?
Art Linkletter once said, “I’ve learned that growing up is a privilege, but growing old is a choice.”
Gordon McKenzie worked as the creative director at Hallmark Cards for 30 years. During his career, he visited elementary schools to teach creative thinking and drawing. When he entered a 1st grade class, he would ask, “How many artists do I have in the room?” Every hand in the room would go up. In the third grade, the number of self-proclaimed artists dropped to about half. By the time he got to fifth grade, only 3 or 4 hands in the entire class reached skyward.
And McKenzie would ask the question, “What happens between 1st and 5th grade?”
When do we start focusing on what we can’t do, rather than what we can do?
As we grow older, criticisms and comparisons hit us with body blow after body blow, knocking the creative, brave, curious wind out of us. For many adults, we never recover.
In the 1970’s, a business student at Yale University wrote a research paper about the idea of an overnight delivery system. His paper received a “C” grade. The professor explained, “The concept is interesting, but the idea does not seem very feasible.”
The student was Fred Smith, founder of Federal Express.
FEASIBLE. REASONABLE. RATIONAL. These are the words of people who have stopped dreaming. These are the words of critics. They have not only grown up, but they have grown old.
There is a story recorded in the gospel of Mark where the disciples have grown old, and in a not so gentle rebuke, Jesus reminds them that God’s kingdom is built on the wonder, the faith, the thinking and mind-set of a child…”The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: “Don’t push these children away. Don’t ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God’s kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.” Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.” Mark 10:13-16
My challenge to all of us is to be inspired by the words of Art Linkletter where it’s okay to grow up, just don’t grow old.
My challenge is to fight critics and comparisons that stop us from dreaming.
And let’s commit our lives to emulate the wonder of a child.
As the great Russian novelist said, “The soul is healed by being with children.”
A few years ago, I was getting on another plane for the hundredth time it seemed. I was tired of traveling, no longer in awe that a plane could get me from New York City to California in around 5 hours. I dropped my weary bones into my much too crowded seat hoping that no one would sit next to me so I did not have to be social. As I was settling in, earbuds in to avoid any potential conversation, I began to observe a little girl, across the aisle, who was probably around 4 years old. Her nose was pressed against the window, overwhelmed by her new adventure. She was bouncing up and down, not able to sit still. Even with my earbuds in, I could hear her infectious giggling, as her senses were on overload.
At that moment, I realized, I had grown old.
I thought of the scripture from Mark 10.
Then I remembered what G.K. Chesterton had said about the child-like wonder of God...“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 sat up in my chair, challenged by Chesterton’s words, inspired by this young girl's curiosity and enthusiasm. I took out my earbuds so I could hear her energy and as we took off from the ground, I wrote these words:
When a child wakes up to the morning dew
With abandoned wonder she asks, "What adventures will be new?"
The day awaits with endless opportunities
Fully in the moment leading to no worries
When a child ventures outside, the world has no limit
Fantasies, impossibilities, new trails where no one’s seen it
The days last forever, not wanting to end
"I'm the king of the world!" with sun-blistered skin
One day the president, the next day a queen
No hesitation, just fearless dreams
No regrets of yesterday, no thoughts of tomorrow
Skinned knees, surface tears, short-lived sorrows
Every child an artist, every child an engineer
CEO, movie star, scientist, a musketeer
World traveler, hero, an all star athlete
Almost always wins, but not afraid of defeat
I sleep impatiently on a plane, hoping to get quickly from here to there
A child presses her nose against the window, staring, cooing, spellbound by what she sees in the air
Every moment a chance to learn, every second fully alive
Enraptured by the present gift, while I'm anxiously waiting to arrive
The world says, "Grow up, sober up, don't think so wild”
Yet the Son of Man said, "You must return to the faith of a child."
A faith that trusts, that asks a million questions
A faith that wakes up everyday with hope, curiosity and no reservations
“...for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” G.K. Chesterton