The Joy of a Child

The joy of being a child.

This is my niece Celly and I had the opportunity to visit with her not to long ago. She is an outstanding individual who has a demeanor of love, happiness, and awe. This is a direct tribute to her parents and the wonderful job that they are doing. During this last visit I brought our camera and spent a lot of the visit taking various pictures of Celly just being herself. She has a free spirit about her and an imagination that runs rampant. There are moments when you can literally see her looking at the world through a filter of joy and wonder. It is fun to watch and there are times when one can become jealous of this period of her life.

In this picture Celly was pretending to fly. She was running around in circles, flapping her arms, with a huge smile and a little travel purse at her side. She just kept going and going oblivious to her surroundings. It is a picture that I love and it tells volumes of the joyous nature that a child has when she is loved unconditionally.

What you don't get a sense of is the fact that there were six adults all seated in a comfortable but protective circle around her. She was free to do as she pleased, but if she were to fall, get hurt, start to cry, or become scared we were all there to provide comfort or a soothing voice. I believe the knowledge that she had a support system around her allowed her to let go of any inhibitions and to explore whatever her mind threw at her.

It is a wonderful way to live.

We have the same deal available to us. When we enter into a strong, faithful relationship with God we are given the same gifts. As our love for God grows and we become believers in this world that we live in, our eyes are opened. When we are able to see God for the true Father that He is, than we become increasingly aware of His presence in our lives. We begin to see that He is always present and not an entity that swings in from the heavens only when we call. We begin to feel His love in everything that we do and the realization that it will never go away is life changing.

We all have the capacity to open our arms and try to fly. We all have the ability to get out into the world and try things that maybe scare us. This life is not about being confined to a box and trying to not screw up. There is much more to our existence than what we see outside the window.

We should all strive to be like Celly. With God's love and support surrounding us we should all put on our travel purses and begin to flap our arms. Where do we want to go? What do we want to do? How do we want to get there? What is out there that we are supposed to see?

Flap away my friends....God will always pick you up if you fall....so flap and see where this world takes you.

Thanks Celly.