There have been lots of articles, posts and musings floating around about how our kids will remember this time of global shutdown...full of focused attention, family time, puzzles and fireside chats (because THAT is happening in every home, right?!) And while I’m pushing myself to take advantage of this extra uninterrupted time with my kids, it got me thinking about what I will remember about this time beyond the stress and inconvenience. Or rather, what could I look to remember?
Several times a week, weather permitting, I schlep the goofballs down to the Puget Sound. We are beach people and thankfully my culturally inland children both live & breathe the beach air. We all can relax there. I can sit and breathe in the salt air with little worry as to where the kids have gone; except for that mass body of freezing water, they are generally safe chasing seagulls, throwing rocks or blowing bubbles. Isaac has taken to sorting through driftwood. This is a new development for him and I’ve watched him spend hours shopping through different sized drift wood, moving it across the sand to a particular rocky spot, then stack, re-stack and build. Mila has been recruited for several of these events, gladly bending to Isaac’s directions on where to place a particular piece of driftwood. That level of cooperation in itself has been a head scratching event for me. But what is he actually doing?? Just playing? Each structure has a different form and apparent use. Mila seems to understand what is happening? What in the world…?
Then I heard him singing & signing while he was building and realized that he usually IS singing when he builds. Then I caught the tune: “Don’t build your house on a sandy land…you’ve better build your house upon the Rock…”. Oh my goodness! He is literally building a house upon the rockS! I could not stop smiling. There is so much that my boy absorbs when I don’t know it. For YEARS we having been listening to Psalty the Singing Songbook sing old Bible songs and ‘teach us worship’, as Mila would say. As my kiddos are, for practical purposes, non-verbal, it’s always hard to tell what they fully understand. But when it comes to their sensitivity to the Spirit, I have no doubts. Their hearts and their extra chromosome of love get it in a way that I know my heart doesn’t always grasp.
Matthew 18:3 shares of Jesus calling a child to his side "...unless you become like one of these you will not enter the kingdom of God". One translation says "unless you become teachable again with the wide-eyed wonder of a child..." Isn't that a beautiful vision of God's heart for us? Don't make it so stinking complicated, you goofball! (not an official translation) Stop and just trust what I said to you as Truth. Sand = bad=don't build there. Rocks = good = build here. Find a firm foundation in Me, even if it means moving your sticks with your sister's help.
This is my favorite COVID Shutdown memory so far. I am so glad we've had the extended time at the beach for me to see God's work in my kids' hearts. #covidblessing
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