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_{S e}toY _no_su_er_s

If you lived life like kids do,

with portals wide open, how much

more of Christ might you perceive?

by Clint Kelly

CHILDREN GET IT. They get that they’ve been given a nose for God. An ear, an eye, a taste for God. They naturally get that they have been touched by God — and that the wonders of creation may be accessed through the five senses. For what are the senses, really, but five portals or ways to know God?

Sadly, most adults are sensory deficient. But watch a group of children and you get the distinct impression that they are closer to understanding all the senses have to teach us. They don’t just smell a flower; they inhale it. An ant is best observed not from a standing position, but belly down. Kids don’t simply taste something good and move on; they roll it around the tongue, lick it gradually, make it last. Children savor their senses, patiently waiting for the full story to emerge.

A child at play is a child with portals wide open. If you lived that way — hilariously, full speed, unencumbered — how much more of Christ might you perceive, how much more of Christ might others perceive in you? To a child at play, there’s something of God in the rain, in the mud, and in the unbridled laughter that rings out from the puddle splasher. At full volume, it’s as joyous as church bells on Christmas morning.