Puzzling

Truly wonderful the mind of a child is.

YODA, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

     Joe, our nine year old, is, and always has been, a puzzle. From the moment labor began, he had his own will, his own idea as to when he was going to make his entrance. No matter that contractions would get to 1 minute apart.....and then slow to 20 minutes apart. No. He was going to enter the world when HE was ready. 

     When he was two years old, he received foam alphabet and number puzzles from my Grammie. She said, "I know that he isn't ready for them, but you can start to teach him the shapes." Well. I started to push out the puzzle pieces and spread them around. He then picked them up and started to turn them over and place them over the correct spot. To see my Grammie stare in wonder at her two year old great-grandson was magic. She looked at me in awe and said, "I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen it. Wow."

     Joe still loves puzzles and as we were working on the one of Washington, D.C., I sat a moment and just watched. Watched as he would look at a space and then, as if by magic, would find just the right piece.

 

     He worked on it for over an hour and a half. Amazing for someone who is sometimes unable to sit for 5 minutes!



     Puzzling, I tell you, these creatures that are gifted to us from God. We try so hard to fit them into a certain idea of what we think they should be.... and yet if we just watch. Observe. Marvel. We will hear clearly what God is trying to tell us. For I believe that they are here, in fact, to teach us. To show us what it is like to have that child-like faith that we have sometimes forgotten. We want to put God in a box, a book, or a church, and fail to remember that he is everywhere. Ready to listen. Ready to show himself. Through the eyes and hearts of our children.

    

     This is what I am pondering today:

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.(Mark 10:13-16 ESV)

     I know that my faith now, as an adult, is much deeper, more molded than it was when I was a child. But I also recognize that when I was a child, there was no doubt. There was no fear. There was just faith and trust. I want to get back to that. Get back to the way I could so easily just believe without this huge world screaming. I also want that for my children. To help them to just....believe.
     So even though I am still sometimes puzzled by my dear Joe, and have to sort through all of his (and my own!) emotions and thoughts, I look to my faith in my God, and my trust in Him to help me through. For Joe is my child, my gift, my heart. How wonderful a puzzle I have been given!