A few weeks ago I was walking with a friend along at Castle Island in Boston. You can walk around the edge in a big circle and see Boston harbor from different sides. It was my friend’s first time, since he was from Peru. Not knowing any of the language and being in a completely different culture, hey I know what that’s like. So I was all excited to show off all we got here in Boston, I was excited to be able to introduce him to the area and the water and weather, and Castle Island was a place my Dad always brought us to when we were kids. The ocean, the summer weather, Sullivan’s hotdogs and ice cream. But all he seemed to be interested in were the airplanes going overhead. The airplanes??? I think pretty much everyone else at Castle Island that day hoped the airplanes would just go away. But one after another, he noticed each one of them and looked up and smiled. He was amazed at the fact that a plane was flying overhead every minute. That was old hat to me, but then after a bit I was watching every single airplane that flew overhead. And after a little while, I was noticing every single one. Some higher, some lower, coming and going at different angles. And I started to think a bit. It made me think about how amazing it all really was with this thing we call air travel. Wow.
Well, as we were coming back around the bend, a little boy was running ahead of his dad, and when he was passing us, he yelled, “Daddy, look at that … Wow!” Then, without getting any response from dad, he said it again, with even more enthusiasm. “Daddy, LOOK AT THAT!! … WOW!” And the frustrated dad came up behind him with his hands out and a look of total exasperation on his face, and yelled, “Look at WHAT????” Whatever his son saw, he couldn’t see it. I turned around and could see the perspective of the little boy. There in front of his view was a beautiful scene of a row of pier pilings in the ocean, weathered at different levels to make a beautiful view.
Now, the dad’s probably been there a million times and probably has a million other things on his mind. All the scenery has become old hat. He doesn’t see anything to say Wow about anymore. But the little boy is seeing it for the first time. He notices everything. He can say Wow.
You know, there’s a lot to say Wow about in our life. God loves to reveal Himself to us in a lot of ways in our lives, and He loves it when we say, “Wow!” like sons and daughters. But we can get used to it. We’ve seen the simple but great things over and over again and we can have a lot of other complicated things on our mind. But that’s why God gives us little ones. Little ones are seeing things for the first time. They can see the things that can make us say Wow. They can see God. And they can help us see God.
At times in our lives, we get invited to step outside our comfort zones. We get invited to out away the complications and weighty matters of life and become little again. To experience things new again and see them again like a child for the first time.
That’s when God is going to reveal Himself to you.
Wow.
“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little ones.” (Mt 11:25)
ALM 