Midweek Meditation - "Let The Children Come"

I am volunteering this week at our church's VBS program. Watching the kiddos today, I have to admit there is something sincerely beautiful about the honesty of praise they offer. Children sing with gusto. They pray from the bottom of their little hearts. And they love with reckless abandon.

So what's wrong with me?

Why can't I do the same?

I know I used to.

I can still remember belting out songs at the top of my lungs and listening wide-eyed to Bible stories while perched on the edge of my seat. Coloring pages and flannel-graph stories thrilled me. And when I prayed, I felt like I was kneeling in God's white marbled throne room.

My confidence in God was unmatched.

We would take on the world together, just the two of us! And we would do great things!!!

Now, as a middle-aged matriarch, frustrations and disappointments cloud my eyes and heavy responsibilities have clipped my wings. Where my faith used to soar like an eagle, I now feel it to be more like the flight of a turkey -- clumsy and occurring only in short spurts. But why? This shouldn't be so!

Life has thrown its share of curve balls and fiery darts my way. I try to dodge them, but, I must admit, a few have knocked me flat. Of this I am not proud.

But, today...

Today, as I quietly watched the children eagerly streaming into the cafeteria, full of anticipation, something in me broke. A yearning washed over me. I WANT WHAT THEY HAVE! That sparkle. That eagerness. That JOY!!!

The good news is that I can have it. In spite of the complexities and turmoils that surround me, I can still live and breathe in the atmosphere of Heaven. I can have a peace about me that this world cannot understand.

I can have it NOW! I can have it ALWAYS!

I simply have to consciously choose it every minute of every day.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:27