Ah, the innocence!

My daughter, Libby, is almost 5. It's hard for me to believe that she's so big and so old and so smart. I feel almost like I've had nothing to do with it! God laughed when he blessed me and Kelly with her. We cried, but yeah, He laughed. He has great plans for her, and we know that, but boy, were we unprepared for another child. I was also unprepared for the lessons I would learn from her. This morning was a perfect example...

We had to take Bubba's homework up to the school because her forgot it this morning. As we drove down the street, Libby noticed this one house and yard, that is already FULL of Christmas decorations. She gets very excited and comments on it every time we drive by. "MOM, they're STILL putting up decorations!" I told her that yes I could see that. Her excitement spurred on conversation (as usually happens with her). "I can't wait for Christmas, MOM!" I know, honey. It's a great time of year. "I can't wait to get presents and all that stuff, and no one person can get all the presents, right Mom?" No, dear, not just one person can get all the presents. But do you know what Christmas is all about? "Oh yes! It's about snow and presents and going to see Santa Claus at the mall, right Mom?" Well, that's part of it, but WHY do we celebrate Christmas? "Oh. I don't know." Man, did I feel like a failure, but then I realized that she's been told time and time again--maybe she just didn't remember. So I took control of that teachable moment. Christmas is a big celebration of Jesus's birth. "OH! Well how old is Jesus?" Well, dear, he's a little more than 2000 years old. "Well, how old will he be when this birthday is over?" Well, he'll still be a little more than 2000 years old, honey. "Oh. Well I think he'll be about 89." Ya think so, huh?

I just smiled and listened to her banter on about Jesus and how big he is and that she hopes he doesn't sit on us because he's so big...I laughed to myself, and wished that I could be so accepting of basic notions of how big our God is. Seems like, as we grow older, we tend to put a value on everything, a label on everything, and add qualitative or quantitative reasoning to what we're supposed to accept on faith. Wouldn't it be nice to just accept things as they are, for just what they are and nothing more? Christmas is Jesus's birthday. That's it! I want to be innocent! I want to be faithful! Jesus, bring me to you as a child, with faith like a child, and hold me like a child today. Help me see life through child-like eyes. Help me to be innocent!