Seeing the world through our children's eyes.

Visitor to our meadow early this morning.  Buck in "velvet."

Ruby throated female hummingbird
at our feeder this morning.

Today I awoke to temperatures in the low 50s; it was very fall like weather around here in Minnesota.  The dew was heavy on the grass and on leaves of the trees, so much so that when golfing at 6 a.m., my feet were soaked within 10 minutes of walking.  It was wonderful to have the cool weather back once again.  In speaking of fall, when walking on the golf course, I could see that the maple trees were beginning to turn, and as a friend from my hometown of Jackson, Minnesota said to me this morning on Facebook, “The locust are already buzzing.” and that is another sign that fall is nearly here. 

Yesterday, early in the morning when having our daily coffee on the porch, Anne and I watched Toby, our cat, sit expectantly on the bottom step, waiting for her friend the chipmunk to come by.  Toby was not disappointed, what happened next though surprised the cat, and us as well.  The chipmunk came running straight at Toby so fast that our cat was startled.  Just before reaching her, the chipmunk veered off, just missing the cat’s paws.  Next, it turned abruptly, running over Toby’s tail as it jumped up the steps.  With what seemed like blurring speed, it began climbing up the lattice and upon reaching the top, it turned and then perched itself on the honeysuckle looking straight down at us, about 6 feet off the porch.  Awestruck over what had just transpired, I began looking over at Anne and then to Toby.  I then looked up at our crazy rodent friend; he had what appeared to be a very smurkish self-satisfying grin on his face.  I could not believe what I saw; Anne was also in disbelief as well.  Next, when looking down at our cat, I could see that she was taken by surprise as much as we were.  Some people say that animals do not possess feelings, I have to disagree.  Watching this little chipmunk do what it has done over the last few weeks to Toby, I would say that it has a great sense of humor, and perhaps a little bit of a death wish as well. 

Mother and twins Abby spotted in our meadow yesterday.

It is so wonderful to live in this world that we have in our midst.  Unfortunately, we sometimes are to busy to enjoy what surrounds us.  Two days ago, I took our two children down to Lake Winona.  Abby was throwing her Frisbee while Will was playing Pooh sticks by the side of the lake.  After playing with Abby and her Frisbee for a while, I walked over by Will to play with him by throwing sticks into the water.  When I arrived near the shoreline, I noticed many wild plants were blooming near the water’s edge.  Will pointed something out that I failed to see, there were many varieties of butterflies landing on the wildflowers.  I was amazed at how I had almost missed out in seeing them.  I then turned and looked around at the many people biking, walking and playing on the swings.  No one was observing the beauty of these butterflies flying about.  If they had known, I am sure many would have stopped what they were doing and came over to watch them as well.

Toby watching for the chipmunk.

How many times in our lives do we miss something so wondrous and beautiful because we are looking straight ahead, or are to concerned about the challenges facing us, that we miss these tiny miracles of life taking place all around us.  So many times I have walked with my children and to my surprise, they have noticed bugs, butterflies, hummingbirds, and worms crawling in the grass, as well as wild flowers just waiting to be picked. 

When we get to heaven, do you suppose Jesus will be having us work on big projects, or be concerned about our bills, or perhaps fretting about relationships in our lives that are bothering us?  Or do you think we might be looking for butterflies, hummingbirds and chipmunks? 

The view from our porch.

In Luke 18:16 Jesus says that we must be as little children in order to enter the kingdom of God.  For us in finding the balance between our adult responsibilities and that of maintaining our innocence as children, can be very challenging to say the least.  Jesus though knows where those boundaries lie.  When we ask him to teach us to be as a child, he will be faithful in showing us the way.  If we do not think that chasing after butterflies or picking wildflowers is fun, maybe it is time to seek out our savior, and ask him to help us to see what our children already know, that life is made up of these hidden treasures, as seen through the eyes of a child.