Through the Eyes of a Child: Living While Alive

By William Powell Tuck

Many people go through life as though they were blind and deaf. They seem to hear and see so little of the world that surrounds us. Through the Eyes of a Child summons us to an adventure to become a "seer" and experience life in a child-like way. This is a summons to discover or rediscover the world around us or within us and see all the miracles around us that we continuously neglect or fail to notice. Being awaken to child-like wonder and expectancy enables us to experience the deep mystery that is realized through learning how to see, hear, feel, touch, taste, and celebrate the wonder of life- even the wonder of sleep.

Routine, busyness, noise, distractions, work, burdens, cluttered existence, and countless other matters blind us to seeing the splendor, beauty and mystery of the holy in the ordinary all around us. This book helps plant our feet on the path to recapture the child within to experience the blessing of being genuinely alive to God and to the world in which we live. It is an invitation to go on a journey within to try to see through the eyes of a child once again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 30, 2003
• ISBN: 9781469782461

William Powell Tuck

William Powell Tuck has been a pastor, professor, writer, lecturer and spiritual "seer" for over forty years. He is married to the former Emily Campbell and they have two children and three grandchildren. He presently resides in Midlothian, Virginia near his grandchildren.

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Contents

PREFACE

ACKNOWEDGMENTS

1

BECOMING CHILDLIKE

CHILDISH CHARACTERISTICS

CHILDLIKE CHARACTERISTICS

SENSITIVITY

THE FAMILIAR AND COMMONPLACE

RECEPTIVE

IMMEDIATE RESPONSE

INNOCENCE

IMAGINATION

DEPENDENCE

TRUST

GROWTH

2

REDISCOVERING A SENSE OF WONDER

INSULATED FROM THE WORLD

SEEING THE MYSTERIES AROUND US

OPEN TO WONDER

DELIGHTING IN LIVING

WILLING TO BE SURPRISED

AN EXPERIENCE OF AWE

3

LET’S COME ALIVE TO LIFE

FAITH BEGINS IN WONDER

A LESSON FROM JACOB

GOD COMES IN UNEXPECTED WAYS

THE AWFULNESS OF GOD

A VISION OF GOD

LEARNING TO SLOW DOWN

THE DEADLY DISEASE OF BOREDOM

CATCHING INSPIRATION

4

IN PRAISE OF PLAY

CONFESSIONS OF A WORKAHOLIC

THE SIN OF OVERWORK

WORK FOR THE NIGHT IS COMING

RELIGION ADDRESSES OUR LEISURE

THE SACREDNESS OF THE SABBATH

A REDISCOVERING OF CELEBRATION

REFOCUSING OUR PRIORITIES

RE-CREATION

PLAY AS A DIVERSION

PERSONAL GROWTH

WORSHIP AS SERIOUS PLAY

5

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING

TALKING AND NOT LISTENING

I CAN’T HEAR YOU

THE DISCIPLINE OF THE EAR

LISTEN WITH UNDERSTANDING

LISTEN WITH THE INNER EAR

LISTEN FOR GOD

LISTEN NOW

6

THE GIFT OF TOUCH

LONGING FOR A TOUCH

A TOUCH OF FAITH

LIFE’S INTERRUPTIONS

REACH OUT AND TOUCH

TOUCHING AS A WAY OF CARING

THE SALTY NATURE OF TOUCH

7

PRESCRIPTION FOR JOY

GOD, THE AUTHOR OF JOY

JESUS ALSO LAUGHED

OUR LOST SENSE OF JOY

GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY

THE CHRISTIAN’S INNER JOY

THE JOY THAT IS COMPLETE

8

A THEOLOGY OF SLEEP

THE GIFT OF SLEEP

A TOUCH OF THE DIVINE IN OUR DREAMS

GOD ASSURES US IN OUR SLEEP

ENDORSEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TO

my children

Catherine and Bill,

who have helped me to see the world more clearly

and to

my grandchildren

John Thomas Whitty, III,

J.T.,

and the twins,

Michael Scott and Emily Ann,

who have much yet to teach me..

PREFACE

Some time ago I took a walk through the woods when the trees were ablaze from the multicolored paintbrush of autumn. I felt more alive than I had for years. The colors stirred memories of earlier days when I had walked in similar woods with my children when they were small. The woods had been alive for them everywhere we walked. New discoveries leaped at us from behind a fallen tree as a ground squirrel ran for its home in the earth, in the winded descent of a red oak leaf as it slowly drifted to the forest floor, in the chorus of music which surrounded us as birds of all kinds raised their songs in a joyful noise and in the discovery of a crocheted spider web that crossed our path.

As I remembered my children’s excitement about the wonders around us, I paused again to ask myself on that autumn day, many years later, if I still had the eyes of a child which my own children had awakened in me. I have learned that I have to turn aside frequently to recapture my lost childlike vision. Routine, busyness, dullness, noise, distractions, work, fatigue, burdens, cluttered existence, and countless other matters blind me to seeing and hearing the splendor, beauty and mystery of the holy in the ordinary all around me. I long for the ability to see the world again through the eyes of a child.

Our Lord has said that only those who were like children would enter his kingdom. I want to remain childlike so I can be a part of that wonderful adventure of grace. We all need to recapture the child within us to experience the blessing of being genuinely alive to God and to the world in which we live. I invite you to go with me on a journey within to try to see through the eyes of a child once again.

ACKNOWEDGMENTS

My special thanks to Carolyn Stice, my dedicated secretary for ten years, who typed the original manuscript through several editions and offered words of encouragement and support.

True Maturity Involves a Resurrection of Childlikeness.—Conrad Hyers, And God Created Laughter (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1987) p. 21.

The spirituality of my childhood is the one I would most like to have restored. It was pure and fresh and honest. I read God everywhere! It was Divine Reading at it’s best. The forest was my place of solitude. The trees, like gods and goddesses, bent down to hear my prayers. I trusted them with all the secrets of my heart, and I was never disappointed. In their presence I felt safe. Looking back at the poverty and wealth of my childhood, my memory becomes a ray of hope and pain. I have become too complicated in my prayer. Yet under the eye of God all shall be restored.

—Macrina Wiederkehn, A Tree Full of Angels (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), p. 62.

These things come to mind at the time of year when children graduate to the next stage of things. From high school, from college, from the nest of the parent. What shall we give them on these occasions? Imagination, a shove out and up, a blessing. Come over here, we say—to the edge, we say. I want to show you something, we say. We are afraid, they say; it’s very exciting, they say. Come to the edge, we say, use your imagination. And they come. And they look. And we push. And they fly. We to stay and die in our beds. They to go and to die howsoever, inspiring those who come after them to come to their own edge. And fly.

—Robert Fulghum, All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (New York: Villard Books, 1989), p. 138.

A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence of life. 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 per

son does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony."—G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (Garden City: New York. Image Books, 1959), p. 60.

I remember frequently sitting on the doorstep of our home when the sun was blazing, the air on fire, grapes being trodden in a large house in the neighborhood, the world fragrant with must. Shutting my eyes contentedly, I used to hold out my palms and wait. God always came—as long as I remained a child, He never deceived me—He always came, a child just like myself, and deposited his toys in my hands: sun, moon, wind. ‘They’re gifts’ He said, ‘they’re gifts. Play with them. I have lots more. I would open my eyes. God would vanish, but His toys would remain in my hands.

—Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965), p. 44.

1

BECOMING CHILDLIKE

Almost every eye in the store turned and looked at the child. She was pitching a real temper tantrum. The mother said to her, Now, Beth, quit acting like a baby. Behave yourself. Why don’t you grow up?

Another scene. A high school senior was having a party at her home. The father began to cut up and play with the other kids until finally the daughter was embarrassed and turned to her father and exclaimed, Daddy, why don’t you act your age?

We seem to get it on both ends, don’t we? We are either not quite grown up enough, or, when we try to play when we are older, we are told to act our age. In response to the disciples question about who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus placed a child in their midst and said: Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become childlike, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3-4).

The words from Jesus about becoming like children seem rather difficult and strange to us. We want to ask with Nicodemus, How is it possible? How can I go back into my mother’s womb and be born again? One of the things we have to try to understand, if we are to grasp Jesus’ meaning here, is the distinction between being childish and childlike. Most of us do not need too much instruction in being childish. Even as adults we do a rather good job of that without other people instructing us. But we may need some real guidance in learning how to be childlike and to rediscover life through the eyes of a child.

CHILDISH CHARACTERISTICS

Think for a moment about some childish characteristics that many of us exhibit. One of the characteristics of a child is the desire to play all the time. Early in life it is evident that a baby delights in play. After a child gets older, play is the center of his or her life. Children want to play. They play house, play school, play church, play ball, ride a tricycle, swim, or watch T.V. Play is the center of life. They don’t want to be bored and do unpleasant things like pick up toys, clean up their rooms, or sit down and be quiet.

This attitude is often carried over into teenage years and even into adulthood. How often we hear a teenager exclaim, Oh, I don’t like that. It’s boring! Life is centered primarily on play. Think of the money that people spend in seeking to play. Obviously, there is a beneficial dimension of play, but some people focus their lives primarily on play. They even want their religion to be play or entertainment, and if they can’t find it where they are, they seek a church where worship is conducted mostly on play.

Jesus told a short parable (Luke 7:31-35) about people who were like children in their understanding of religion. To put it in a little longer version we might describe it like this: There is a group of children gathered together playing. One says, Let’s play wedding. Rebecca, you be the bride. Jonathan, you be the groom. Matthew you be the rabbi. No, I don’t want to play wedding, another says. Let’s play funeral. O.K. Jonathan, you be the corpse. Matthew, you be the rabbi, and Rebecca you can be the mourner. I don’t want to play funeral either, another responds. What do you want to do? I don’t want to do anything. Jesus says this is the way people sometimes respond to religion. John the Baptist came as a very somber figure and demanded repentance. People said, He was too stern; he was too hard. Then Jesus came along and they said, He was too sentimental. He was not hard enough. He was not solemn enough." Their response to religion was like a child who refused to play and went over to a corner and sulked. They refused to respond at all. They were childish in their approach to life. Many of us express our religion that way.

Another characteristic of childish behavior is that a child is very emotional. First, a child responds to life through his or her emotions. If they don’t like something, they begin to cry. If a diaper is wet, the child begins to cry. If they are hungry, they cry. If they stay up too late and they get tired, they cry. Even when a child gets a little older, if things do not go right she may become angry and begin to cry.

Sometimes these characteristics are carried into adulthood. We have all seen a child pitch a fit in a store because his mother will not let him get a candy bar. Everybody in the store turns around and watches the mother as she tries to handle the situation. She doesn’t want the child to have a candy bar now, and the child becomes furious. He wants what he wants now!

Some adults carry that same kind of attitude with them into adulthood, don’t they? They try to control others through their anger and tears, and seek to manipulate them so they can get whatever they want. This is a childish characteristic which many people hold on to for a long time. This is not to say that there are never appropriate times to cry or to be angry, but some of us use anger and tears in a