She Skips!

My wife and I just returned from an Autumn vacation, mostly visiting family.   We have five grandchildren, the two oldest of which are our granddaughters, one of whom is six and the other is nearly four.  We were blessed with opportunities for extended time with each of the girls individually.  You know how God's Spirit sometimes seems to speak to you by calling your attention to something otherwise overlooked in an ordinary situation?  It happened with each little girl.  The Spirit spoke as we walked together in a zoo, in a restaurant, at a playground, or anywhere.  It's like God's voice said, "Look at her.  She skips!"

Remember skipping?  I don't even know how to describe it in print.  It's kind of hopping, leg lifting, leaping, all in a rhythm.  Nobody has to teach able children how to do it.  There's no single cause of it.  In a task as simple as walking from a front door to a vehicle the girls would simply break into a skip for no particular reason.  It's as if some inner voice says to them, "You're alive.  You're loved.  Something interesting and new may happen at any moment.  Skip!"  Even that explanation is way too anal and adult.  They're just wired to skip as a way to express joy in the moment, and it happens.  It seems that growing up is a process of dismantling that wiring, so that we just walk in a dignified and controlled manner, as mature people are supposed to do.

So why do I look at Paige and Aubrey (our granddaughters) and delight in watching them skip?  Why do I hope that they never stop skipping?   Why do I wish I still broke into a skip now and again?  When I get lost in praise worshipping Jesus, why don't I just skip around the auditorium?   Maybe we really are wired for unbridled, skipping joy, and the burden of being "responsible adults" is our hunger to reconnect with the God-designed joy in us that surges in an impulse to leap before the Lord?

Do something nice for yourself today. Wait until after dark if you're worried someone will see you.  Go outside and say to yourself, "No matter what, I am a child of the living, loving God."  And skip. 
I'll see you around the next bend in the river.