Youthful Joy

Here’s a fantastic quote by G.K. Chesterton on the topic of joy.  I mean, who wouldn’t want more of that?!

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged.  They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead.  For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.  But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.  It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon.  It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.  It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

Am I the only one that loves that thought?

In speaking of God, “ageless” usually means “so old you couldn’t count it”; “eternal” is thought to be “older than you could imagine, so don’t bother”.

And that’s right.  But…

What if “timeless” means “unaffected by time, outside of it”?  What if “infinite” translates into “as far removed from everything fallen as east is from west”?

That would play into Chesterton’s idea… a young God… in the sense that He is untouched by all processes of declining, fading, and deteriorating–a God who never gets tired, upon Whom could depend for strength even while youths were getting tired and looking for wings like eagles.  Man, that idea’s sounding scriptural, if I didn’t know better!

A God like that is easy to find some hope within and easy to cling to, wouldn’t you say?

1 thought on “Youthful Joy

  1. I love this post and the quotation on boredom as well. It is so much fun to see little ones take in each day–watching, taking newness in, bouncing and runnning from place to place, and being open with their love. I was just visiting with some friends and two of their sons (ages 5&3) were making up songs (on cleaning up). We sing our praises to God but imagine what His songs to us are like…

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