| “How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all … When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.” |
| —Psalm 104:24, 28 |
Out the children came: mouths open, tongues out, excitement showing on every face. I stood by the front door of the school doing my daily end-of-the-day bus duty. As though playing from some script, over and over again, the children ran out of school into the newly fallen snow with the same reaction: cries of delight, eyes skyward, they couldn’t have been happier.
The adults—teachers, aides, custodians, and bus drivers—reacted with far less joy. We complained and worried about the drive home. Snow offers a challenge and we found nothing so gleeful in it.
Thinking about those long-ago days, I wonder which group pleased the Lord more. God must have looked with pleasure, as the children enjoyed this gift He’d brought to an otherwise ho-hum school day.
As I watched the children’s reaction and delight, God reminded me of the many simple gifts we receive from His wonderful creation. And, I also remembered His kind and gentle way with children. God gives us the happy spirits of children to remind us of life’s simple pleasures, and to remind us of the beauty He constantly provides around us.
Watching the joy of the children, I breathed this simple prayer:
“Thank you, Lord, for revealing the beauty that I wouldn’t have seen except for these gleeful children.”
As we live through the gray, lifeless, even challenging days of winter, let us determine to look for the beauty and wonder that the children see. When we do so, we may find that we, too, can find enjoyment in God’s simple gifts.
