The Curiosity and Wonder of a Child
The Curiosity and Wonder of a Child
This post was inspired by a friend who explained how she was off and running, after her baby started walking and was getting into EVERYTHING! Our lives come in stages. The first stage is infancy when that precious newborn can only cry, sleep, eat and provide reasons for diapers – lots of them. At first, he can only detect light and motion and after about a month, he can make eye contact and focus on objects about 12 inches away. But when his full vision comes to be, a whole new world is opened to him. His is the world of curiosity and adventure as he reaches and puts his little hands on everything. In fact, he is so curious that we have to cover our electric sockets because those little fingers want to discover what those holes are all about. Curiosity and wonder are inbred in this little one. Then he starts to walk. This is the sweetest, yet often concerning times for his parents, as my friend shared: “What’s he going to get into next? Oh my goodness – he pulled all the toilet paper off the roll! He’s eating the dog’s food!” Then he starts to talk and soon is asking questions. Remember those little ones asking “What’s that? Why? Why is the sky blue?” “Why does the dog bark?”
He’s curious, inquisitive, wondering AND wandering. Oh, to be filled with curiosity and a sense of wonder and awe again – like those little ones! Don’t you know that is something that God wants for us, as His children, to embrace again? We who have lived several decades know what it is to become busy with life and pressing needs like food, water and shelter so we leave little room for curiosity, being inquisitive and finding wonder. We know what it is to make mistakes, so we become a little gun-shy (cautious) with life, instead of giving our curiosity full reign to being spontaneous to new adventures, asking questions, and seeking new ways of doing things. That’s not the case with children. The future is wide open for them, and they seem to know it. Wide-eyed with wonder, filled with potential, they are ready to see the possibilities all around them. Unhindered by the past, they are free to wake up each morning with enthusiasm and delight for what this day holds.
That’s the childlike spirit that God wants for all of us. God doesn’t us to think we are too old, too wounded, too limited, too whatever. Adventure awaits us when we take off the restraints of complacency. May we become curious again. May we seek and find treasures in friends who have knowledge and a wealth of wisdom to share. There are exciting places to go and things to do. Our Father has great plans for us. It’s up to us to run into that future with all the confidence of a little child!
Matthew 18:2-4 “Jesus called a little child to him. He stood the child before the followers. Then he said, “I tell you the truth. You must change and become like little children. If you don’t do this, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The greatest person in the kingdom of heaven is the one who makes himself humble like this child.”