If I wasn’t careful, I could let this blog’s recent uptick in “clicks” go to my head. But I’m smarter than that – I know it’s most likely all the cute grand-kid photos I’ve been posting. However, now I have your attention, maybe you could consider returning on a regular basis for the writing?

That said, I do have a few more photos to share today. It’s been a good week for “photo-ops,” but it’s also been a great week for wisdom, insight, and the unique perspective of children. It’s not just the innocence, it’s their natural closeness to God.

David and Beks have reminded me, consistently, that nurturing a relationship to our Creator is not something manufactured, it’s not an “add-on,” nor is it an “after-market” idea, or some kind of elective, added as a “take it or leave it” option if we’re so inclined.

Instead, knowing God is a natural feature of the human experience, something we were created to enjoy, something built into our fundamental design. And it occurs to me that – too often – we humans do a thorough and systematic job of eradicating the divine spark in our children, to the extent that they eventually become strangers to God.

My grandchildren’s particular witness to divinity is their authentic sense of joy, their luminosity, and their contagious gratitude for life. It’s not that they’re never unhappy, or difficult – or that they are incapable of misbehavior; no, both David and Beks have the usual capacity for naughtiness. What points me to God is their joie-de-vivre, their honest-to-goodness, all-embracing love, their faithfulness to the idea that life is to be lived head-on, unabridged, flat out, no-holds-barred.

So that’s it. Their parents arrived Friday afternoon, and they will all be on their way back to Richmond after dinner this evening. I’ve enjoyed every minute, and I’m exhausted. But grateful, so grateful; and full, full to overflowing.

– DEREK