Summer has been daily playtime for Jonathan and Jane with their friends Max and Allie. And watching them at play has been a delight and filled with lessons of wisdom for me.
Max and Allie were gone with their parents for a week for an out of town vacation. Afterwards, I asked Jonathan and Max if they missed each other. They jumped at each other and hugged real hard to show me how much. At that moment, I learned always to let my friends know how I feel about them, how they are an important part of my life. Jonathan and Max also fight and get mad at each other. But they always make up. I have learned to be honest and open about my feelings with friends. If they are true friends they will understand or make room for my dark moods. And I will do the same for them.
Jane and Allie walk around the house holding hands, when their hands are not busy playing with their dolls, or doing their artsy stuff, or dancing, or modelling. I learned that it is always good to reach out and hold somebody’s hand – whether during good times or bad. Reaching out in good times multiplies the joy and happiness I have. Holding somebody’s hand in bad times divides the pain and the sorrow and makes them easier to bear.
The four kids spend hours living in a world of pure imagination. But it is amazing how living in that make-believe world, they learn how to live better in the real world. They learn and get to use words to describe realities that exist in the real world. They dream of possibilities in that fantasy realm that can be translated later into realities in their lives. They experiment on behaviors that will help them cope with real life later. It seems like they are trying to remember the good things from the place they came from and bring these into this life before these are totally forgotten.
The Lord will not abandon his people.
At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.”
Matthew 11:25-27