Glimpses of the Kingdom

But Jesus said, let the children come to me; do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. Matthew 19:14 New English Bible

For one whole week, I was blessed with the opportunity to catch glimpses of the kingdom through the eyes of three of my grandchildren. While they visited me, we laughed, played, ate junk food, sand and danced in the rain, watched movies, and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning. We had a wonderful week together.

Soon, Courtney will be ten. she brings such joy to life. Her personality is such that when she walks into a room, if there is no fun, makes some. Her insight and perception of others is sometimes quite astounding. She constantly signs the silly rhyming songs of childhood, making up verses as she goes. Finding myself the subject of a verse or two had me laughing at yet another of my human foibles. What a gift she has, helping us see who we are and making us laugh at what we see.

It will be fall before Tim is ten. He is all boy meeting the world head-on, but he shows such tenderness and love of God's creatures. The first night of his visit, he sat at peace in the grass watching fireflies, catching them at will then letting them go. As he taught his cousins to catch the fireflies, his eye/hand coordination simply amazed me. He easily caught them midair. I was unable to catch even one. However, my inadequacy reminded me of a favorite adage of my daughter's (Time's mom): "He who hasn't made a mistake hasn't made a discovery", and I was making so many discoveries.

Stephanie is seven. She truly has a gift for loving and caring. Her spirit just seems to soar while singing and dancing in the rain. Watching her with her peers gave me real insight into her gift. It was then that I observed how she made sure all were happy, included, and comfortable before she thought of herself. During an evening of severe weather and tornado warnings, though she was quite frightened, Stephanie unknowingly gave me the most wonderful description of love, saying, "I know we'll be all right, grandma, because we're warm, safe, and together." Surely that must be how Our Lord feels about all of His children.

Prayer: Thank you, Father, for letting Your little children come to us for they truly bring us glimpses of the kingdom through Your gifts of joy, peace, and love. In Your Son, Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Judy Welch