One thing has become certain in my life.
Inconsistency
I have become so accustomed to a few days here, four days there and a couple elsewhere. The toll is starting to have its effects on me. I have started to tap into the reserve side of my energy, I have found myself craving more quiet time and I have questioned my obedience overtaking my friendship with God. However, I love my life and every once in a while God uses my inconsistency to have conversations with me.
This is one of those conversations…
A young man climbed onto a bus with a couple of close friends and their Father. The young man crammed into a seat that had very little room for two, but there were to be three and the Father to fit in that day.
As the bus bounced across one bump after another, the space shared seemed to dwindle and the fighting for shoulder space ensued. From out the window the sun shone bright and the young man begins to sweat and slowly grow more and more agitated at the circumstances. The smell of body odor and foreign foods begins to waft through the air and an unsatisfied stomach began to ache.
“I deserve to have more room!” The young man grumbled.
His eyes turned to the road and the miles ahead trying to somehow change his attitude and entitlement that he felt. After a few minutes of gazing out the window trying not to make mention to his friends of how he felt in hopes of sparing them from the downfall of the journey,
The Father leant in and asked a question,
“What is it that you see?”
The young man still grumbling jerked back, “Why would you ask me a question like that?”
The Father, a smirk across His face, gently replied, “Just look and see what it is that catches your attention.”
As much as the young man wished to go back to blankly enduring the journey, he complied and glanced out the window. “What is it that I am suppose to see?” the young man asked himself. Slowly the young man began to recognize a small child sitting in the dirt drawing circles with her finger. Another child was leaning against a wall on the corner of an ad painted building watching her two young brothers. Yet another was slowly pulling around a plastic bottle on a string smirking as if it is the most fun he has had in a long while. One young boy pushed a worn out bike tire around in a circle with a stick causing dust to follow in his tracks. Two young brothers clung to one another, one whopping the other with a stick and then stammering a few steps laughing while the other chased after him clothes filthy with the red dust that had just made the landing pad for the kid as he fell back.
For the next ten miles the young man observed child after child inclined to stay in a small area either sitting patiently, carefully plotting the ploy of a made up game or seeing after their younger siblings. Few wore smiles and even fewer reflected any sense of change in their routine or energy that the kids the young man had worked with in the past had often exuded. Even the parents did not seem to feel the urgency to see if their kids are behaving or staying put.
Once again the Father leaned in, “What is it that you see?”
Through blurry eyes the young man turned back to his Father, “I see the children, but…”
The Father smiled and interrupted, “But?”
“The children, they seem very content in their circumstances. It is not the normal gleaming faces I have seen with the children I have played with here!” the young man replied.
The father chuckled and asked, “Well, what is it that you see in their faces?”
“Well, there seems to be more maturity. It looks as if they have lost something.”
The Father’s face changed a little as He thought about the young man’s answer, “What if I let you in on a little secret. Those children have not lost anything, they are expectant?”
The young man nodded, “Expectant, got you!” however in his mind he had no idea what that meant.
The Father chuckled once again and continued; “You know how all these children follow you and they yell after you, “Mzungu”. These kids have not lost their curiosity they are expecting something to change but they do not yet know what that is going to look like. Often times you have been that change! In the mean time, they pass their moments wondering what will be the change. Let me show you something, grab The Word and flip to Matthew. I had another Son that wondered about the kids.”
The young man reached down and pulled his Bible out of his backpack and flipped to Matthew. “Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.” –Matthew 19:13-15
“Well what happened to the children?” the young man asked.
“They are still there, you are looking at them. You once had the same curiosity, you once wondered what was going to happen next, you would chase after things that you found peculiar and you even laughed when the craziest things would happen to you! Sometimes you still do!” replied the Father.
“Why not all the time?” asked the young man.
“You felt the urgency to grow up, it is okay though most do. Sometimes we become expectant for the things we do know. That is why the Kingdom belongs to those children; they are so much more expectant for the things they have never seen. They just believe! But do not worry, I will see to it that you never lose that side of you and your visits back will become more and more frequent if you keep on listening.” said the Father.
The young man sat back in his tiny seat and let out a breath of laughter and mumbled under his breath, “I don’t want to grow up.”
All of the sudden the sun did not feel as hot and the seat did not feel as cramped.
“Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” –Matthew 18:4
I believe Jesus blessed all of the kids for ages to come. We are not told of something crazy happening, He just kind of prayed and then left. However, something happened and it transcended physical and time boundaries. We were once there! Think about it. How do we get back to that blessing? The easiest way I have found is to hang out with kids as a kid. Of course there are things that we must mature and grow in, but actually finding the curiosity of a child is one of the most mature and challenging things we can do.
I challenge you!
