james' blog...

james' blog...
misc ramblings n' thoughts...

Thursday, June 06, 2002

morning at the beach...

So I'm blogging from Sue's house right now, just so I won't forget what I just wanted to blog about. This mornin', I was supposed to go meet some buddies at the beach for beach volleyball before work and CCF. But yea, some complications as usual and I ended up being the only one there. So I figured since I was there, I'd do some jogging there and then maybe head to work. After jogging a while, I went to a spot by the rocks that was surrounded by water and sat there for a while for quiet time with God. What else can be more perfect than a place of solitude surrounded by wind, rocks and swishing waves. The only problem was that there was a park right behind me, and there was this mom playing there with her two kids. The kids were shrieking and making lots of noise, and it was actually kind of distracting.

Well, God speaks in funny ways right?! So I ended up watching the kids play with their mom for a while, and God was kind of showing me some neat things. There was an older daughter (probably about 7 or 8) and a little baby boy (probably around 3 or 4). The reason why the kids were yelling at their mom was to get her attention. "Mom look at me!!" "Watch me go down the slide!!" "Come play with me!!" I realized that it's so cool that we have a God who is omnipresent and can anywhere and everywhere. Imagine if we all had to compete for God's attention. Oh my, that'd be so difficult. But it's so cool how God can be with you and with me and with anyone and everyone else all at the same time. No fighting for God!!

Obviously, the mom had to stay with the younger little kid, who was attempting to climb rocks or to go down the slide but was much too small to. I thought the older one would be jealous or demand more attention, but she didn't. She was very gracious and I think she realized that her little brother needed her mom's presence more. Sometimes we go to Youth Rally's or TC's and Sunday School's and stuff and we complain that it's too shallow and that we're not getting anything out of it. But we often forget that there are other people who may not be at our stage of spiritual growth. I know I'm guilty of that and I have friends who also complain with me. But I think that we should learn to be like the little girl and to be gracious about it and to realize that not everyone is at the same stage of the game. I'm sure there are times when I got a lot out of something but there were other people there who thought it was too shallow. You don't hear me complaining about those.

Instead, the little girl helped lift her brother up onto the top of the slide. When her brother was too scared to go down the slide, she encouraged him and even went up behind him to support him. And when her brother couldn't go down the slide because he was too scared, she too climbed off the swing, even though she had slid down many times before.

I realize I learn a lot from children. So pure, so simple and oh so much love.

posted by jamescl | 12:49 PM

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