Ever since I realized I wasn’t exactly a kid anymore I have desired so badly to be one. I love dancing around crazily and not caring what people think, riding my bike until I’m worn out, playing at the park, playing board games, and lots of other things that are carefree and childlike. That kind of completely pure innocent fun brings me such joy and makes me feel alive.
A couple of nights ago two friends and I decided to go on a bike ride at 11:30 pm (which isn’t that unusual for us). However, it didn’t start out well because about three blocks away from my house my friend fell off her bike and hurt her ankle pretty bad. She decided she really wanted to ride so we kept going. We rode over the purple people bridge (a purple bridge only for people, no vehicles, that goes over the Ohio River and connects Kentucky to downtown Cincinnati), through the park in downtown Cincy, and down some less-driven road. As we were riding I felt so free, so full of joy, so excited. I started thinking, this is what it was like as a child- the simplest things made me feel that way, and I was always in wonder and awe of something. But as I was thinking this I realized that it has nothing to do with childhood at all, but it’s about Jesus! He wants us to always be in awe and wonder of Him and of His creation.
Pure joy is find only in the love of Christ, and we don’t need to be kids again at all to experience it more frequently. I am so excited by this reality because the closer I grow to Christ, the more joy I will have- the incomparable joy of the Lord that is more joyous than anything else I can think of. He doesn’t want us to lose our creativity, wonder, and curiousity, but He wants it to grow because our love for Him grows. What is better than that?! So here’s to staying up late giggling and building forts (which I just did 2 weeks ago), riding my bike as fast as I can, and painting whatever I feel like painting without even worrying about the end product. Not merely because those are fun things but because Christ has freed us to be completely who He has created us to be and because He alone fully knows what our hearts desire.
