Finding Joy

Feeding Caleb is one of the most enjoyable times of the day for me (breastfeeding that is, solid feeding is quite stressful right now!). After he finishes, we sit together in the rocking chair, talking, playing, laughing, singing. Today he found it hilarious for me to pull him up to a standing position and sit him back down. We did this over and over, and each time he just cracked up.

He is so joyful about experiencing things in his world, how they feel and sound, what they look, smell and taste like. Whether it be a facial expression he finds funny and wants to imitate, kicking a ball around the kitchen, listening to dad play the guitar, or tasting the petroleum jelly he grabbed out of the jar (oops), his contentment is written all over his face. He is most certainly enjoying the gifts God gave him. It got me thinking how rare it is to see an adult similarly joyful about his world and the gifts God gave him. We are even more experienced, have more abilities, more traveled, more aware of our world than a 9 month old, yet instead of creating more contentment we seem to let it make us more cynical or even depressed. Sure there are things in this world that we notice as adults that less than admirable. We're at fault for that and we have to live with what we've done. Last I checked, we still have those many things God made for us and gave to us. These are the same things that "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. " (Gen. 1:31)
He can see the good here. Caleb can see the good. Why do we let ourselves miss out?