Auto or Bike ?

Matthew 18:1-5

    I can go from my home to my husbands office by car, about 15 miles, in about 30 minutes. I have done the same ride by bicycle and it takes me about 2 hours. The trips are vastly different and if it were a contest of speed the car would win hands down. Very efficient and I can accomplish so much more. 

     The bike ride however boasts some benefits that today's Scripture passage speaks of. If we are to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, if we are to be our best, to be childlike and what we are meant to be then the bike ride wins.

      When I bike,  I reignite my sense of wonder. I reconnect with creation and appreciate so much that I totally miss zipping by at 45 mph.  The sights of animals in the fields, the smells of freshly mowed grass, the fields, the sounds of streams gurgling and birds singing.

     I am not advocating everyone get out on their bicycle, it seems it would be fool hearty in many areas of the nation today. It also isn't suitable for everyone. This is not a message sponsored by Schwinn or Trek. It is a reflection on ways in which I can reconnect with my sense of awe, my childlike nature that Jesus notes we should strive for. To be like a child.

       I can think of other ways to calm the socialized adult beast within me. Hiking, walking a labyrinth, sitting on my lanai in the early morning or simply taking time to sit and center on nothingness, erasing any adult agendas from my mind. Taking time to play with my grandchild, sitting on the floor playing cars or with wooden trains, I get lost in vroom-vrooms and toot-toots.  It is magical and holy.

       How can we still ourselves and awaken the child within? We are filled with a desire if not a need to play, to be 'taken away' and appreciate God in the world.