"Dad, this is really cool"

Two weeks ago we celebrated my son’s third birthday.  We were in California for a family reunion where we got to meet my nephew and twin nieces for the first time.  The day before Jack’s birthday we all went Disneyland for the day.  It was quite an ordeal to get all 13 of us to move around the busy park, but it was a blast!!  My wife and I went into it not knowing what to expect with the kids.  We assumed that they wouldn’t take naps at the park, so we knew that we might have to leave early if the kids hit ‘meltdown status.’  Our hope was to make it to dinner time.  The kids did great and we were able to stay until after 10 pm.  The highlight of the day for me was centered around the ride The Matterhorn and the firework show.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the ride, it is a roller coaster ride where you sit in bobsleds and race around and through a mountain.  It’s a great ride and Jack was just tall enough to ride it.  I wasn’t sure if he would enjoy it or if it would be too much for him, and the line was over an hour long all day, so I hadn’t pushed it.  At about 8:30 the kids were still going strong, and the line was short, so we decided to give it a try.  I let Jack watch it for a few minutes and asked him if he wanted to ride it, or if it looked to scary.  He said he wanted to do it, so we did.  Jack did great.  He didn’t make a sound the entire ride, then at the end said “that was fun, and kind of scary.”  As soon as we got off the ride the firework show started.  At Disneyland they launch fireworks from two different locations and we were standing right in between them.  Jack was sitting on my shoulders and every time a firework went off he’d say “ohh look, there’s another one!”  As the firework show was getting close to the grand finale, Jack said: “Dad, this is really cool.”  My heart melted.  I thanked God for allowing me to be a dad and prayed that He would not let me ever forget that moment.

 

                As I thought about that moment and the love and joy it made me feel, I thought about how it must make God feel when we share those times with him.  Those times that we’re sitting on His shoulders experiencing something truly majestic.  I’ve had several of those experiences in the last couple of years: sunrises, sunsets, looking at the stars, feeling a fish strike a fly as I’m standing in a mountain lake or stream, holding my kids and listening to them laugh.  I could go on and on, but I want you to think about what those moments have been for you.  In those times nothing else matters.  You don’t think about what you’ve just gone through, whether scary or fun.  You don’t think about how tired you might be.  You just stand in awe of that moment.  Next time you experience one of those moments I encourage you to picture yourself sitting on your Abba’s shoulders, and let him know “Dad, this is really cool.”