As Children

Remember that smell that you have after playing outside for a blissful afternoon?  Sometimes there is nothing better that little boy smell after hours of sweat earned from playing outside.  Think on the mussed hair that children offer as presentable.  The joy of seeing giggling children playing in the rain, in the mud–messed up.  They have no idea that they need to pretend to be something that they are not…they are just as they are. Yesterday morning the children’s choir sang at our church.  As I listened to their clear and sometimes exuberant voices, I noticed the untucked shirts, the mussed hair.  I thought on how they are dependent on their parents and caregivers for everything…food, shelter, clothing, emotional health, physical health.  Then, quietly I was humbled and reminded that Jesus said…come to me and receive me like a little child.  What a lesson…in faith and trust and not trying to earn my way or straighten myself…but just as a little child in exuberance and joy.