A few weeks ago my family went on vacation to the beach. I figured my two-year-old son, Zeke, would have a good time, but that turned out to be an understatement. He absolutely loved it. One day, we were walking down the stairs to the beach and as soon as his feet hit the sand, he dove face first into it. He moved around as if he was making a sand angel. This was only one of many times he dove face first into the sand. He would run into the ocean without a care in the world (don’t worry someone was right next to him the whole time). He made it hard to relax on the beach, but he also made it a lot of fun. Most older people (including myself) go to the beach and complain about the sand. Zeke was diving face first into it.
The Saturday after we got back from the beach, our church was passing out flyers at a big event at NC State. We decided to make it a family event because who could turn down taking a flyer from a two-year-old or Angela wearing a cute baby (plenty of people shot me down). We didn’t really know what to expect from Zeke so we came prepared with lots of toys, snacks, and Disney Junior on our phone as a last resort.
Zeke passing out a flyer went something like this. He would run up to a complete stranger (again we were right there with him) until he was about half an inch away from them. People almost knocked him over on numerous occasions. He would hold up a flyer as high as he could and say “HERE YOU GO!!!!” Sometimes he would be jumping up and down or waving the flyer at them. We learned quickly to only give him one at a time because if he had one in each hand he wasn’t going to let someone walk away without taking both of them. Most of the time the people would take the flyer and Zeke would then sprint back to someone to reload his flyers. If the person happened to walk by Zeke wouldn’t get mad or upset. Instead, he would literally chase them down. He would run after them and insist that they took the flyer from him. This took all of us by surprise the first time it happened and we ended up having to go catch him.
I was there debating on who to give flyers to and Zeke was chasing people down to give them one.
Zeke has reminded me why Jesus said in Luke 18:17, “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Zeke has a passion and boldness that challenges me. It challenges me to live in the freedom that God provides. He reminds me that sometimes I need to act childish.
until next time…