Childlike Faith

I'm reading Dangerous Wonder by Michael Yaconelli. It's about discovering, or re-discovering, childlike faith. And I think about my own kids, now 21 and 17, and I wonder when they lost their childlike faith - becasuse I think most of us have lost it. And I wonder who took it from them. I think it was me. I bet I told them to "grow up" or "quit playing around" or "act your age" hundreds of times. By the way, if you have to "act" something then it's not really you, is it? I wonder if there is a specific moment in each of my kids lives when they can remember me taking the playful child right out of them.

In his book Yaconelli tells of a time, I think he was about 6 years old, when he and a friend were playing in his room. They were trying to be quiet so as not to disturb his dad. Then before he knew it they were jumping on his bed ( which made a thunderous noise on the first floor of his house ). Then they figured out by accident that, by timing the jumps just right, they could launch each other higher. They thought they might be able to touch the ceiling. This ceiling touching became their destiny.

Suddenly his bedroom door opened and the huge shadow of his father fell across the room. His voice could be heard two houses down: "GET IN BED NOW!" He says he and his friend must have looked like frozen Gumbies, waiting for the bouncing to stop. Neigher of them said a word and got in bed. His father shut the door and they went to sleep. Yaconelli states that "as I look back over the forty-six years since that night, I am struck with an odd awareness. I never bounced on my bed again".

And then he speculates on what might have happened if Jesus opened that door instead of his father. There's no way to know of course but I like his thinking. He thinks Jesus might have looked at them for a moment, laughed, and then said "Move over, guys, I'll show you bouncing!"