My nephew turns four this week. Of course I'm happy for this delightful little guy, but there's also a touch of sadness. There's something special about the age of three.
Neil Pasricha writes in The Happiness Equation:
“I love hanging out with three-year-olds. I love the ways they see the world, because they’re seeing the world for the first time. A three-year-old can stare at a bug crossing the sidewalk for half an hour. Three-year-olds drops their jaws at their first baseball game – soaking in the crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the smell of the popcorn. A three-year-old can spend an entire afternoon picking dandelions in the backyard just to drop them into a glass of water as the centerpiece for dinner.”
Most of us do not have the patience to stare at a bug for more than a moment and can never recapture the magic of that first baseball (or Notre Dame football) game.
Still, we could benefit from trying to see the world through the eyes of kids (and kids at heart). Christ seemed to think they could teach us something.
Kevin Kelly writes, “The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished.”
If we find ourselves losing our sense of wonder, we may need to find a friend with a three-year-old. God's creation provides no shortage of material to astonish us.