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primal joy: the secret life of baby animals and the unguarded, unpretentious mind of God
Editor's note: These two 8 year-olds obviously are emotionally attached. Childhood is a time of easy infatuation, dream-worship, unrealistic expectations, and just plain foolishness; however, I think it also can be a time of seeing the world through the unguarded and unpretentious mind of God.
For a long time, I have felt that babies' love and joy, of whatever species, reveal God in a special way. Like an underwater scene of joyous, laughing children's playfulness in Blue Lagoon; like sporting baby dolphins playing tag in the waves; like baby Angus calves frolicking in a pasture; like newly-created Eve and Adam, so innocent, so open and unaffected, not even understanding the concept of nakedness.
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Alabama Rain
We were only kids,
but then, I've never heard it said
that kids can't fall in love
and feel the same, I can still remember
the first time I told you...
I just don't know what happened...
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Someone brought me a story; apparently true, a biographical account of a missionary couple. When they were 8 years-old their parents, also missionaries, were stationed in Africa. But, at that very young age, these two babies decided that they wanted to be married someday. She said she would wait for him to grow up. He sealed their pact with a small gift, a sample of perfume, obtained from his mother. And as young adults, they in fact did become married, and, as Jim Croce song goes, "feel the same."
Just now I am reminded of the closing words of the movie, Stand By Me (paraphrased): "I never had a better friend than the one I had when I was 8 - does anyone?"
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