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JOY



If you want to take a break from adulting this holiday season, look carefully at a child’s face taking in the Christmas lights and decorations — especially very young toddlers. The awe and fascination on their faces are inspiring. In fact, I get slightly jealous of how enchanted they are. I want to be awed by Christmas decorations and lights.


Oh, to see the world through the eyes of a child — to recapture the goodness, the innocence, the pure heart of a child this Christmas season.


If you’re anything like the rest of the adult world, you have either started or will soon spend time decorating, cooking, and cleaning. You either have or will soon buy lots of presents in stores or online, and then you will wrap all those presents.


Do you sometimes wish you didn’t have so much responsibility and independence?  Do you sometimes long for the days of your carefree childhood?  Especially at this time of year?


Robert Fulgrum, who became popular for his book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, wrote the following words:


“It’s harder to talk about, but what I really, really, really want for Christmas is just this: I want to be 5 years old again for an hour. I want to laugh a lot and cry a lot.

I want to be picked up or rocked to sleep in someone’s arms, and carried up to bed just one more time. I know what I really want for Christmas: I want my childhood back. “Robert Fulgrum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten


While we can’t have our childhood back, perhaps it is possible for us adults to try to see Christmas through the eyes of a child.


Now, honestly, we don’t want to literally see Christmas or anything for that matter the way children see. Did you ever wonder why when kids hang something up it’s always crooked? That’s because their eyesight isn’t developed enough to be able to tell when objects are slanted.


You know how they draw, when they’re young — the house is slanted, the dog in the yard looks like he’s falling over standing on stilts. They also have a poorly developed depth of field. That’s why when they put Mom and Dad in the picture with the house and the falling-over dog, one of them might look ten feet tall and the other parent looks like a garden gnome.


Psychologists look at those pictures and think that the child sees one parent as more important or more powerful when in reality, it might just be about the kid’s inability to put people in perspective on paper.


Of course, when we say we wish we could see through the eyes of a child, we don’t mean to take their literal vision with its strengths and weaknesses, we mean to step out of our adult worldview and try to adopt a different worldview, one that is filtered by the qualities and perceptions of childhood.


Children are deliciously curious by nature. They ask millions of questions, and then they ask a million more.


They automatically think outside of the box, because their curiosity fuels their imagination. They are not limited by the past, as we are.  I don’t think we would ever hear a child say, “But we’ve always done it this way.”


Children are often filled with excitement.  They don’t have to work, so they have a lot more energy than adults do. They run instead of walking, they speak loudly and show their emotions. Earlier this week, we put up our outdoor decorations including several multi-colored trees. Every time I put those trees up I recall the time the neighbor kids came with their parents to look at our yard.


The three-year-old little boy was so energized after looking at the trees. His face was filled with awe as he stared into the colored lights. I asked him if he liked the trees, and he smiled and jumped up and down, then threw his head back and looked to the sky as he answered with a resounding, “YES!”


Remember that feeling? Of seeing something so beautiful that you couldn’t contain the excitement in your body? You had to just let it out with a yell?


Remember what opening up presents on Christmas morning was like as a child?? No concern for saving the wrapping paper for next year, no tenderly removing the bows, just wild, frenetic JOY!!! And of course, getting presents is the main part of Christmas for a child.


A woman took her four-year-old granddaughter to a “big church” for the first time.

She sat quietly taking in every aspect of the service and her attentive curiosity stayed in check until the pastoral prayer. The pastor said, “We thank You, Lord, for Your presence.” The little girl’s eyes flew open and she whispered to her grandmother, “Granny, we’re gonna get presents!”


Children have incredible faith in people and things, don’t they? Children just believe. They take people at their word with no suspicion. They trust people. They believe people will take care of them and care about them.


Harvey Mackay writes:

“Adults need proof that something is good before they will believe it. Kids aren’t that way.” — Harvey Mackay


Every child is wrapped in innocence upon entering this world. You remember innocence:  it’s that sweet spirit of goodness. It goes beyond the ability to trust every person you meet.  It’s the expectation that all will be well.  Of course, it will.  It’s the reason children’s faces look that way when they see your smile, when they lie down without a care or a worry in the world, and sleep peacefully, when they stand in front of the Christmas tree.


In this Bible passage, we are reminded how much Jesus honored children:

“The disciples came up to Jesus with the question, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus called for a little child to come and stand among them. Then Jesus said, “The truth is, unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” — Matthew 18: 1-3


I think what Jesus means in this passage is that unless we become child-like in our attitude — possessing qualities like humility, trust, and innocence, we will not be open and receptive to God.


What if we could somehow reconnect with this innocence and these other qualities of childhood THIS Christmas?


Imagine what that would be like:  we would begin to see each other in a different light.  We would trust each other more and believe the best about each other. If we dropped our jaded, cynical adult worldview for a few days, or weeks, or until Christmas, and we really thought and saw like an innocent child, with a pure heart, our lives would be significantly changed.


I challenge each of us to observe the children around us very closely right now. See their tender, innocent faces as they stare into the holiday lights, as they talk about gifts they hope for, as they find excitement in things we have long taken for granted.


And then, let’s do a little staring into the lights ourselves. Let’s dream about things we have given up on. Let’s focus on the innocence and gentleness of this season more than ever.


Maybe, when we open up our presents this year, we should scream loudly and roll around on the floor out of pure delight.  Let’s do whatever we can do to experience this Christmas through the eyes of a child.  It’s the most joyful way to see the world. Amen.




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