Unless You Come to Me as One of These Little Ones...

I know, I know...not enough blogging here to keep any ones interest but if you'll bear with me I will eventually get the hang of it and blog 'til I can't blog no more!

4th of July was a great day for Grant and me. It was a day when all of the memories of childhood came flooding back with currents of clarity. I could see myself with my brother traipsing down the Cannonball Factory creek, lifting rocks all in search of those elusive Banded Water Snakes! And here I was some 25 years later driving my son to my old huntin' grounds. We were both so excited about our adventure. He was ripe with childhood expectation of giant snakes chasing us in the waters as we fought them off with daggers and swords. I was full of fatherly hope for a couple of nice snakes we could catch, video and begin another generation of Sutton Snake Hunter...who knows, maybe turn it into a Discover show someday.

The Lord was good and we found three great Banded Water Snakes and managed to catch two of them. Get this, the first rock I turned over exposed a nice size serpent! The old man's still got it!! I was able to get video proof and we both left that day with memories to cherish.

Having told that story, I must confess that the most special time came in the truck ride to the Cannonball Factory. The fact that I don't have a TV in my truck like Allyson always lends itself to some fun and never boring conversations with Grant. They usually revolve around what superhero he wants to be when he grows up or some well thought out technical superhero questions like, 'why doesn't Batman fly?' or 'can Spiderman pick the Hulk over his head?'. Needless to say, this conversation he started caught me off guard.

He began asking me about heaven and the new bodies we'll have in this place. How do you explain to a four year old about new bodies (probably not as awkward as the birds and the bees)?? As I tried my best to describe this new body in the new heaven and new earth he let me know he liked his the way it was and didn't want a new one! It struck me, how many of us live as though this world was the only one worth living for? But to see Grant listen and soak it up with childlike faith all the while processing what it must look and feel like up there was simply amazing. No number of successful hunting trips can take the place of filling my son up with the things of God. And this because I know that when all the superheroes are gone, his childlike imagination wears thin like his dads hairline and he is just too old to make it down to the Cannonball Factory, he'll still have the hope of God, the promise of all things new.

The last thing that I will cherish forever from this conversation came as an afterthought from Grant. We were riding down the road after our conversation and had been silent for almost a whole minute when I heard him say under his breath to himself staring out the window, "I think about heaven all the time."

Teach me, my son, to set my heart on things above.