You can hear it in their tiny voices when they sing in the Christmas pageant.
You see it in their eyes when they look at the first snow fall out their window.
And you can feel it when they hold your hand because you know they are really holding your heart.
Today I am grateful for a child’s eagerness to believe.
Years ago when I was going through a tough time I stayed up late at a friend’s house talking. I slept on my friend’s couch as it was too late to head out.
In the early morning while I was still sleeping I felt a little hand touch my face and then try to open one of my eye lids as he whispered “up” in my ears.
I opened my eyes to my friend’s three-year-old son’s smiling face an inch away from mine.
For that minute he held my face in his tiny hands, I felt no matter how heavy my problems seemed, that everything would be okay.
Children have this curiosity and fearlessness of the world. They believe the world to be a good place. No hang-ups or expectations, their tiny feet and hands love to explore.
Sit in a church during a service and wait for the first little one to escape their mother’s arms and run out into the aisle. They will run up to strangers and even up to the altar where everything is happening.
When my niece was two years old she would stick her little butt out and back into her mother’s arms without looking as if to say, okay it’s time to hug me.
A couple of times it wasn’t her mother’s arms that gave her a hug from behind and it would surprise her.
At a family picnic one summer I looked over to see one of our nieces sitting in a hole in ground in the middle of the shelter area playing with something in her hands.
She didn’t care what people thought of her or that her clothes would get dirty. She had found a place of her own where she felt safe and comfortable to play.
This time of year in the Christmas season as adults it is so easy to get way laid by the hundreds of things we are trying to finish before the big day…sometimes missing the joy of the season completely.
But just like those days when I needed cheering up, I watch the children.
They teach me especially during this time of year, that everything will work out.
Reminding me to taste a falling snowflake on my tongue. Decorate a Christmas cookie and eat some icing along the way. Write a letter to Santa.
And maybe stick my butt out behind me and back in for a hug from someone I love.
Read more stories like these in my new book Under the Influence Of Gratitude
