I went for a walk on the beach yesterday with my 7 year-old cousin, Aiden. Aiden has a facination with insects, flowers, and fish. We walked along the beach and filled up his bucket with crab shells. Every time he came across a new crab he would get so excited, bend down, examine every detail of it and then explain to me why it was so "beautiful." He showed me how some had orange spots, some had purple spots, some had reddish shells, some had brown. When I asked him why he loved crabs so much he said (with great excitement and animation) "because they are so cool...they are all different shapes, sizes, and colors. that's so cool."
As we walked along the beach and I watched him pick up 30 or 40 crab shells, never losing any excitement or getting bored, I thought to myself...this is how my heart needs to be for people. So often we walk into stores, down the street, even in our neighborhood and we pass hundreds...thousands of people and we never take the time to stop and examine them. I have been to the beach more times then I can count and I have never noticed that some crabs have purple spots and some have orange, red, or green spots. When Aiden pointed this out to me it truly was a "beautiful moment". How many people do I come in contact with daily that I do not notice their beauty? I have often asked myself the question about certain people, "why are they in my life?" and I can hear God saying..."because they are so cool...they are all different shapes, sizes, and colors. that's so cool."
When we got back to our blankets and chairs, Aiden excitedly rounded the other kids together and dumped out his "treasure"...expecting the kids to think it was as amazing as he did. Most of the other kids said, "eww" and one of the girls was afraid of getting stung...so one by one they abandoned the pile of crab shells to go play in the water. Again, this just made me think how God just dumps out his "treasure"...his children in front of me and often I look at them as a "mass" a "pile" instead of looking at each and every individual person. Often my actions act more like I am thinking, "eww...what is so beautiful about that?" or I stay away not wanting to get "stung" but I want to see God's creation...His people through His eyes...seeing the unique beauty he has placed within each and every soul.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
Dennae! Why didn't you bother telling your lil-bro about your blog before!?
I really love this post. I've had a major problem with picking and choosing the people I associate with based on their appearance/social status. It's really hard for me to just walk up to an "outcast" and begin talking. Your post kind of spoke to me by telling me I need to remember that I was that outcast for awhile, and if it wasn't for people that found the "coolness" of me, my life wouldn't have gone through the dramatic change that it has. For awhile God was putting outcasts on my heart, but of course I turned around and fled as fast as I could in the opposite direction.
I just ran right back into Him through your post. Thank you.
dannae...i can relate to your lesson from a child...i learn so much from my kids about myself every day...sometimes it can be sobering...learning how to have the heart of a child...jen
Jen, I don't have any kids...but one of the reasons I love being around them as much as possible is because I feel constantly reminded how to love unconditionally (and how to have a lot of fun :)) I loved Pastor Dale's message about being child-like to enter the kingdom (Matthew 18:1-11) He said that children trust innocently, love freely, and risk selflessly...and we need to be doing the same to advance God's kingdom. I love how God speaks to us through the preciousness of children.
Post a Comment