During the week of Thanksgiving our son, daughter-in-law, and their two children, and my mother all were at our home. We have the traditional good time of eating way too much delicious food, watching too much bad football, and just enjoying being together.
The youngest of their two children is not quite seven months old. He is our youngest grandchild. He reminded me of how joy and innocence are interconnected. He was never troubled by the news reports regarding the economy. He never was in a rush to get to the stores and get any Christmas gift specials purchased.
He was content with a bottle of milk, some strained foods, a few colorful toys to chew on, periodic naps during the day, and someone to occasionally rock him. When he woke up from a sound slumber, he would slowly open his eyes, look around, and break into a big grin. He was happy and no world crisis, stress of a holiday, or schedule pressures of adults had much impact upon him.
He still lives with so much innocence in his young life and his life is so full of joy. My thought today is that I am envious. I wish we all could reclaim some of our lost innocence and at the same time restore some of the original God-given joy with which we were born.
As we go through the month of December, maybe that should be our intent as we approach Christmas with the wide-eyed innocence of a young child observing the Babe in the Manger new and fresh, experiencing the joy that comes from seeing Him.
