© By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min.

I had lunch recently with two other Episcopal priests. All three of us are grandparents. We talked for a while about the dangers to children nowadays. Then, the conversation turned to our grandchildren. Someone raised the question: "What will our grandchildren say about us in fifty years. One priest named Chuck said, "Fifty years from now I want my grandchildren to say about me, 'He was a devoted pastor.'" The second priest, John, said, "Fifty years from now I want the grandchildren to say, 'He was a good preacher.'" The two turned to me. They asked what I wanted my grandchildren to say. I said, "Fifty years from now I want them to say, 'He certainly looks good for his age.'"

We appreciate children's sense of wonder. Clement of Alexandria preserved these words of Jesus, "Wonder at the things before you." No doubt it was children's sense of wonder that made Jesus commend them to us as models of character: "Unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in" (Matthew 18:3, TM). A little child was asked to name the Seven Wonders of the World. She skipped over the ancient seven and said, "To touch, to taste, to see, to hear, to run, to laugh and to love."

We appreciate children's willingness to learn. Years ago Burton Hillis pointed out that little children have not yet built up layers of insulation, called "familiarity," to deaden the electric surge of delight they feel when they discover something new. In the 19th century there was a famous zoologist, lecturer, and writer named Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895). He said, "Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing."

We appreciate children's love of repetition. Years ago I accompanied a family to the airport to await their plane to England. I performed my one and only magic trick for the children of this family by making a coin disappear. The little ones squealed, "Do it again." Nearly 100 years ago, G. K. Chesterton noted that God has this eternal appetite of infancy. "Our Father is younger than we are," wrote Chesterton, because God exults in monotony, in repetition. Chesterton observed, "God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon." Both "The Passover People" (the Jews) and "The Easter People" (Christians) gather around tables to do it again.