At A Child’s Pace

I still have a little competitiveness in me so when I hike up Elise’s Peak I push my aging legs in order to work up a sweat and beat or match my last time up the mountain. The only problem with this plan is I miss so much of the beauty which surrounds the rocky path.

The other day I took two of my neighbors who live right across from Oceans Retreat Center. Nathan is 10, and hiked the trail once before his class at school a few months ago. Josie his sister age 5, would be attempting the hike for the very first time.

They both bounded up to the trailhead with enthusiastic joy. However, the first section is some of the steepest elevation gains on the hike, so soon our pace rapidly slowed with frequent stops and water breaks. We stopped to look at little bugs crossing the trail, listened to the birds singing their morning songs, and looked back over the town below locating their house and the retreat center.

When little legs got tired we sat on rocks, shared some stories, and after awhile I would entice them to continue on with the goal of eating snacks on top of the mountain at my favorite spot.

When we reached our destination there was joy, relief, and a sense of accomplishment. I pointed out to them my prayer rock and told them why it had become a special place for me over the last years. “Uncle Tim, can I pray on your rock?” asked Nathan. This made me smile, how could I ever say no to that?

Nathan got on his knees, placed his hands on the rock and offered a heartfelt prayer. Josie followed her big brother and with child like faith talked to her Father God. I wanted to pull out my phone and take a picture to share with their mom and dad but it was such a holy moment. We ended our prayer time with Josie leading us in a song of thanks for our snacks, “God our Father, God our Father, we thank You, we thank You for the many blessings, for the many blessing, a-a-amen!”

Our trip down took just as long as the hike up. We stopped to watch the clouds floating by, smelled some wild flowers, skipped, jumped, slipped, cried a little, took off shoes to rub the blisters on our feet, and made it home with tired smiles of pride and a sense of accomplishment.

The next morning, while sipping my coffee, I thought about the journey with Nathan and Josie and I begin to write all the lessons learned on the adventure in my journal. One phrase that popped into my head and recorded was, “learn to live at a child’s pace.” Too often I have rushed up the mountains in life. I’ve missed the beauty of what God has placed all around me in both physically and spiritually.

As I was pondering the phrase and the experience I found myself singing part of a song which I used to listen to some years ago:

“May we never lose our wonder – Wide eyed and mystified,  may we be just like a child staring at the beauty of our King…”

The hike up Elsie’s Peak with Nathan and Josie reminded me to view the world like a child. To gaze on the beauty of King Jesus and to ponder His words about how to live in His Kingdom:

“At that time. the disciples came to Jesus saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  Mt. 18:1-4

Perhaps today is the day to slow down. Live life at a child’s pace. And encounter the beauty of the Lord!