Family

---

Children love and feel with their entire being. Their love is infectious and viral. I’ve been exposed and I am gleefully sick with it! I get excited every time I am in the presence of a child expressing joy and love. It is one of the most enriching benefits of sharing a child’s life. If she is happy, her eyes shine brighter than the first glimpse of daybreak at sunrise. As a grandmother, I wish is to earn a front row seat; to each and every happiness. Her laughter is like music never composed with earthly hands. A favorite song developed by a loving God. The musical laughter is like a celestial symphony! I imagine angels mimic the joyful tones and pitch as they sing His praises by day and night.

I am so completely in love I daydream about my grand-daughter. In my visions, I see her body almost vibrate with the excitement of each new joy she discovers. There is a chorus of happiness that surrounds the simple structure of her body and escapes to dance around her spirit. It swirls around her smiling, happy face in a cosmic ode to joy. It affects every sense and I can almost smell it! I liken it to a mixture of chocolate cookies and cinnamon toast…absolutely yummy! Along with what you take with your eyes it is amazing! It is so beautiful to behold…and no matter what background, belief or religion, most people enjoy beholding the joy of a child. It transcends all the social barriers we create to separate each from another. Pure, lovely and globally appreciated. No artist has every created a likeness as accurate as first hand witness of a child’s joy. And no poet has found words to justly describe the indescribably experience of joy and love. We all appreciate it…we all seek it. Oddly, children seem to find it often. And each time she finds joy, I can feel the world pause for a brief moment while God smiles with her.

But when joy is stolen from that very face that transcended all sense and lifted my world; there is no other sadness more profound. As a grandmother, I want to shield her from the pain of every disappointment. Prayerfully, I hedge protection around her loving and innocent spirit. May she never experience: Believing as only a child can, and then not. Having the key to peace and happiness, and then not. Feeling the bliss of shared love…and then not. Not only beholding, but possessing and partaking in joy…only to be emptied instantaneously by sadness. It is tragic and I want it nowhere near the precious fountain of joy I found the day my grand-daughter was born.

I am just one. One grandmother who desires to banish the kind of disappointment that takes the shine out of her eyes. I am just one. One grandmother who wants to be used whenever needed to call her to joy. I want to behold the music of her laughter. I want to partake in the sunshine of her happiness. I want to bask in the warmth of her discoveries. I want to hold her hand when God smiles with her.

Oh Lord! How I need your leading and guidance! Whatever you desire me to be, let me be it to your glory. Smile on her…smile on me…Please! Infect me with so much you that no one can see me. Then let the part of me that is you shine in her always. If you find any part of me that doesn’t fit…snatch it from me and cast it away from her! Where you want me to reveal my likeness of you…lead me! I am not prepared without you! Like you, I want to speak more of love and live accordingly. Let me be your pitcher of refreshing water, I want to pour encouragement straight from my heart to fill any emptiness and satisfy a thirsty young heart. Let me be a sign designed by your loving hands; I want to point to a sure path of fulfillment and peace. Let me be your spy, I want to sneak behind enemy lines and steal the power out of disappointment and regret. Let me be an electrician and plug that power into hope and victory. Let me be your farmer. So that long after I am gone; my seeds of optimism will grow bountifully in the child I love today and transcend hatred, discrimination, exclusion and seclusion.

When she has grown fully by the powerful nutrition of your love, let her fruit fall to those in the future and inoculate them from dismay, spite, and all manner of evil. Let all who surround her be nourished with happiness and sprout joy. Let all who know her bloom inspiration to create hybrid love so powerful it exceeds what we feebly refer now as agape’. If you should feel inclined to find room for these in your will, please do me one small favor. At that moment in time, when all these things have come to pass, let the world pause for a brief moment and bask in another one of your smiles. Amen.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE