Toad to Wait

A friend sent me a and made bookmark picturing a frog, that read, “I was toad to wait here.” It is a pleasure to slip into my book, but to my seven year old grandson it is hilariously funny and worth reading over and over again. I keep it in “Prince Caspian”, from the “Narnia” series, next to the bed where he sleeps when he visits. By now the book mark is very familiar, but it nevertheless produces the same delight and laughter every time he sees it. In turn, it makes me laugh, and I think of the bottomless well of joy and pleasure that sometimes exists in children, triggered by a simple incongruous thing.

I believe that every shriek of laughter, every smile that meets a smile in the eyes of another is a prefigure of heaven, of the joy of recognition of shared delight.

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:16,17).

Jesus doesn’t single out the elderly or women or men to receive the Kingdom of God, but only children. He is talking to adults as he makes this assertion. How can the Father God be a father if his people refuse to be children, if they abandon their child-like joy in Him and in His creation?

Paul wrote that even after he had put the “ways of childhood “ behind him, there remained faith, hope , and love, all spiritual realities of both children and adults, and “the greatest of these is love” (1Corinthians 13:11&13)

It’s no accident that the promise of a child is the linchpin in God’s relationship to Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people, and of our faith.

Jesus’ words are very strong in regard to children: “If anyone causes one of these little ones-those who believe in me-to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be frowned in the depths of the sea.”(Matt. 18:6) Such strong admonitions come from the mind and heart of a parent for his children. They remind us that our lives are his personal ,passionate concern. He clearly knows the joy of shared pleasure with children as well a the sweetness of their undisguised love and faith in him. Children, it seems, are a great bond between us and our God. They are another way in which God engages us in His own life to share His joy. Certainly, we have all been “toad to wait on Him!”

Love in Him,

Prue