Small children have an incredible way of helping me see a common object in a totally different way. If they had a more extensive vocabulary, children would be great rocket scientists because they would grab wires and instinctively put them together or in their mouth or around another object that could be the answer to the puzzled yet unsolved. “Oh, if only I had thought about how water could be used as a conductor!” says the old rocket scientist and the little one would move on, curious to see what else is available to sort out.
Today I visited some friends with a little girl just about 2 years old. She is very inquisitive about the world around her but doesn’t quite have the words yet to put her thoughts into understandable communication. This is mainly due to the fact that she only recently moved to the USA from Africa and her parents speak over 5 languages. When I come over, I jumble the learning process and throw her complete curve balls. I taught her zipper, fish and shoe today. Random I know. But she does have a few words down. Sit. Go. Come. Thank you. Bye. That’s a good set.
So dinnertime came when her dad made some chicken legs. Cool. She grabbed it by the small end and attempted to eat it like an ice cream cone. Licking didn’t get her far but the skin was too tough to pierce so she just kept gnawing at it. She finally got bits of meat off the bone and we proudly applauded her efforts. This would be a great way to diet- lick everything to death and/or start from a weird end until you get to the good stuff.
I ate lunch with another friend and her 22 month old. Cantaloupe appeared on my plate and eyes of intense curiosity pierced mine. She received a bit of the melon, rind and all. Well, as makes sense and comes from past experience, she started at one end, wanting to chomp down rind and all. “That’ll give you the runs,” says mom. So we tried to show her the way to eat the melon off the rind but she wouldn’t have it. Too messy, big people don’t get things all over their face, waste of fruit, apples aren’t eaten that way must have flown through her mind. Mom finally cut the fruit free. The little one tasted the sweet satisfaction of cantaloupe and looked for more.
I appreciate the way my struggles with life can be put into perspective after spending time with little ones. Everything is new to them and yet most time they embrace it with gusto and courage. If I told either of these girls what it would be like to go to Kindergarten or have braces, endure puberty or kiss a boy, they wouldn’t grasp it. And even if they had the vocabulary and certain understanding of the concepts, they wouldn’t be able to handle the complexity of the journey. God does that with us too. He gives us chicken legs to gnaw on, find the meat, enjoy and learn how to eat for next time. He excites us about new things a little at a time, encouraging us along the way so we want more. If God told me where I will be in 6 or 26 years from now, I probably would overwhelm myself with trying to get to the finish line if I could comprehend such possibilities at all. Crystal balls seem enticing but are more like huge electricity balls found in science class. They shock you for no good reason and without ways to cope with the shock.
I’ll take my chicken leg and cantaloupe one meal at a time. I just hope God helps me maintain a child-like attitude to difficult and new things.
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