Grandchildren and Imagination

I just got home from vacationing with my grandchildren, and their parents.  A few observations came to me based on what was seen and heard during the week:

#1 - Grain elevators can look like castles to a three year old. The first time she noticed a grain elevator she exclaimed with awe in her voice, “Is that a castle?” Of course we all laughed at the retelling of the story. It got me thinking, however, what happened to my imagination that I only saw elevators where she saw castles? Did something kill my imagination or did it simply die from lack of use?

#2 - Being an adult can also be fun. I found this to be true while enjoying a public pool that observes adult only swim time ten minutes out of every hour. This was designed to give the kids time to rest and reapply sunscreen. It also gave the adults a chance to swim unimpeded or, as I discovered to my delight, skip long lines on the giant water slides, over and over again. I was heading up for my fourth trip down the slide when the look on my grandsons faces, who were near the top when the whistle blew, caused me to stop and wait with them for time to run out and go down together. Sometimes we need to jump in and enjoy ourselves in good clean fun.

#3 - Our family can turn anything into a game complete with rules and prizes. We started out with the little ones blowing bubbles on the porch. Next thing I knew we were all competing for biggest bubble, most bubbles, most bubbles caught, etc. In the end everyone got a prize for something. The women took the young kids to Target and the men took the older boys to Cabela’s to find their prizes. Bubble blowing turned into an all-around fun afternoon.

Solomon also enjoyed his grandchildren and may have gotten some of his wisdom from observing them. He said, “Grandchildren are the crown…” of their grandparents, (Proverbs 17:6, HCSB). They not only give us joy they give us wisdom and a lot to think about.

Bro Robin