Again!

Eliza and Caitlyn went to Vacation Bible School all week. The craft for Friday was a cup with sticks inside, on which they wrote different things. Caitlyn's sticks had different people and things for which to pray. Eliza's sticks had potential activities to do when she needs some direction. (I'm not sure if this is what she was supposed to do, or if her inner teacher was coming out.)

These are the activities Eliza wrote on her sticks:
Play Barbies
Play school
Be creative
Watch TV
Play Polly Pockets
Play school with family
Snuggle family

(There was also a stick with all of the names of our family on it. I think that was the initial "prayer stick" and then she decided to go her own way. She tells me it means "Go out and do things with family")

On Friday evening, Eliza wanted to do the "Snuggle family" option, so we sat in the chair and I offered to read her one of the books I'd picked up at the thrift store that day. I was excited about my finds, and she picked out one of the books I'd heard about but never read. It's an older picture book, originally published in 1969.



It was a delightful story, and when we got to the end, Eliza exclaimed, "Read it to me again!"
That absolutely made my day. Years ago, that was a common request, but it had been a while since I'd had her ask to read the story over again right away, especially since she's capable of reading it herself now. It made me so happy to know that my 7 1/2 year old was still delighted enough with a good book to want me to read it again.

This is why -

"Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.
But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."   G.K Chesterton, in Orthodoxy

I came across that passage sometime last year and it has resonated with me ever since.

May we all have a child-like spirit that delights in the good, simple things repeated again and again.