(We are) a chosen and very special people to be His own possession, who are enthusiastic for doing what is good.

Titus 2:14

I know, I already published a post about our grandson Geoffrey (a week ago – This One Shines – it’s definitely worth a quick look). But the above image, yesterday, from our daughter Naomi captures the current situation about as well as possible. Also, there is some fun text to go along with it.

To set the scene. Geoffrey, while working on his dinosaur puzzle, says emphatically, “Mommy call grandaddy! Granddaddy see Geoffrey puzzle!!”

So she does. We FaceTime chat. And I ask Geoffrey about the dinosaurs on the puzzle and he gets them all right, 100%; even Brachiosaurus, which is a hard word. Plus correcting me when I point out what I think could be a Stegosaurus but is actually something else. No, I don’t remember what it was, so I’m sure I will get it wrong again!

This is when I ruin our daughter’s next few hours by asking Geoffrey, “Do you have any other puzzles?” An innocent mistake. Me not knowing that Naomi was hoping he wouldn’t remember there are more. Seven more to be precise. Because Mr. Three-year-old enthusiasm proceeds to dump them all out and that takes the rest of the afternoon to complete. Sorry not sorry Naomi!

So later she sends me this amazing photograph. Geoffrey beside himself with excitement and wanting to share with his granddaddy. He literally could not stand still. Here is the exact dialogue:

The Good Life:

I admit that it’s a hard concept to wrap our heads around; but we talked about our core motivations Tuesday morning in the men’s group. Life and raison d’etre and the question: “What is our purpose in being? What gets you up and out of bed every morning?”

The guys shared some good stuff, from “introducing people to Jesus” to “walking out the front door and having a good day,” to “keeping engaged with the creative process.” It was all very encouraging.

But then sometimes I think that a good answer – a better answer – could be, “I want to have fun! I want to jump around like a three year old! I want to be able to say ‘LOOK GRANDDADDY! HOP HOP DEREK (or, insert name here _____) GOES HOP!!!!'”

Don’t you believe it’s okay for a 67-year-old man to be so over-the-top giddy about being alive? I do.

I really do love my life. I may not go “HOP HOP!!!” (I think my post-soccer knees would have something to say about that) but I do smile a lot and I do dance a lot in my spirit, and I do have this heart that overflows with gratitude and with enthusiasm about so very much.

And that is where we ended our discussion in the Tuesday morning men’s Bible study, when we landed on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

“HOP HOP! LOOK, GOD!! HOP HOP DEREK GOES HOP!!!”