God of Mirth

We discussed childlike faith last night at my small group. Through the magic powers of technology, I downloaded Chesterton's Orthodoxy on my Kindle during the prayer time so that I could read this quote:

A child kicks its 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 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... 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.


Chesteron was a huge influencer on me through my years of intense seeking. It was after reading Orthodoxy for the first time that I started writing what became Between Two Kingdoms - not with the idea of publishing a book someday, but with the hope of more fully understanding this God of Mirth. I think often as I pray that perhaps God is eternally younger than me. He has not been aged or weathered by sin. He can be wise, ancient and eternal while also full of the life, vitality and the joy of a child. 


Perhaps one of the reasons that Jesus says we must receive the Kingdom as a child is because it is the only way to recognize the true nature of the eternally young Father.