I watch a two year old thoroughly enjoy a room filled with toys... until I set up safety-boundaries. Suddenly it dawns on her that she's not supposed to cross these, and then they become all she can think about. I remember that God watches as I test the edges of His will. I realize He knows more about what dangers are "out there and down the road" than I do. I think of the garden of Eden...
and thus I've had a lesson on "why there are commandments."
I see a day bursting with spring. Tossing aside thoughts of any "trouble" I might have to go to to do this, I grab the bubble-blowing toys and say "let's go outside!" I settle into a lawn chair and watch a preschooler blow, chase, laugh, pop.. blow, chase, laugh, pop. I notice early buds on trees, daffodil splotches of yellow against green; I hear the nearby cooing of a dove...
and thus I've had a lesson in wonder.
I observe the tenderness with which a five year old helps her toddler sister. "Here's how you wrap your baby...you can have this dolly.... this is how we rock them, see?" And the all important piece of advice: "if you're the Mommy, you aren't supposed to have a binky in your mouth!!!"...
..and thus I've had a lesson in love.
"You can do nothing with children unless you win their confidence by ... breaking through all the hindrances that keep them at a distance." (St. John Bosco)
"What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was a wonder. It was not merely a world full of miracles; it was a miraculous world." (G.K. Chesterton)
