Wide-eyed Wonder: Slice of Life

Dress-up and playdates are a big part of my life right now. This photo was taken one sunny day this winter when one of our neighbors was over playing dress-up with my daughter on our screened porch. They were dancing around modeling their dresses for me (they changed about every five minutes), while I had one eye on my tasks and one eye on them. I should have been soaking in their joy with both eyes instead.

The longer I looked at this image, the more I realized my longing to possess the wide-eyed wonder it captures. Stray strands of sunlit hair swing carefree, while delighted dances sing sweet with girlish giggles. The light captures and frames the chubby hands and pinch of cheeks that will soon be gone. Why do I sometimes wish it away too quickly? How have I lost this crazy, happy joy? Has growing older made me taller, yet smaller? Could there be an advantage to the childlike vantage point?

Yes. Yes, I think I agree with the writer, Ann Voskamp, who says it is the"perspective of smallness that cultivates surprised wonder, that grows gratitude, that yields joy." Smallness. Small on our knees. Small in our expectations. Small in our services. And so, I also agree with the words of F. B Meyer who said, "it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower, and that we have to go down, always down, to get His best gifts." Epiphany! I must become smaller in the world for it to seem bigger! To be filled with joy, I must be filled with the moment. Oh, look at the moon! Look at the wildflowers! Look at the moment! Maybe, I will not always enter every single moment with childlike wonder, but my joy moments can greatly increase simply by refusing to look over them. Instead, by looking them straight in the eye, I can capture many of my moments with childlike wonder and frame them with the beauty God has given to each.

"Anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven." Matthew 18:4.