Wonder

 I was walking behind a child on the way out of the supermarket yesterday.  She was probably about four or five and in the ten paces that it took for her to get to the exit she stopped three times. Once to point out a stray ticket that was on the floor, next to exclaim that the pizza in the poster was shaped like a heart and then to show her mother the collecting box for Guide Dogs which was shaped like two labrador puppies.   Almost every step for that child was an adventure and a discovery.  And she was in Tesco 😀  When was your last trip to the supermarket filled with awe and wonder?  

The seven year old I have been looking after during lockdown is a wonder child.   We are supposed to read a short story book most days for homework, but trying to get to the end of a fifteen page book is a real effort because he wants to look at all the pictures and comment on every detail and then deviate from the page to tell me some fascinating fact about something or other.  He tries my patience no end but I have to admire his ability to notice stuff.  And to be genuinely excited about what he notices.   The aim of the exercise for me is to get him to read the words properly and understand what they say.  The aim for him seems to be entirely different - it's to talk about every last aspect of every drawing and every word to squeeze all the possible joy out of them before moving on.

As adults we don't notice things.  We have become immune to the general joy to be found in the stuff of life.  We no longer rejoice in the leaf on the pavement or the raindrops on the windowpane.  We skim read the words and flip past the pictures because we are usually a) in a hurry and b) over familiar with this daily life we lead.   For kids it's all new.  The stories are new, the pictures are new, the exit from the supermarket is new.  They see things through new eyes and what they see delights them.

Perhaps this is some of what Jesus meant when He exhorted us to be like little children.

Today let's make an extra effort to pay slow down, pay attention and rejoice in the details.