Curiosity Is Her Middle Name

She creeps and crawls. She stands and falls. She laughs and cries and listens and sighs. Lily is maturing fast and our apartment is not. I hesitate to say she is growing fast since she is just over nine months old and weighs about 13 pounds. But she's healthy and happy and we couldn't ask for more than that. Our tiny apartment is struggling to fit all of us and all our stuff. There are perpetual piles of clothes, books, toys, and diapers multiplying throughout our home. Just as one pile is disassembled, another of some type takes its place.

Sometimes I think I am stuck in the twilight zone when I enter a room that I have been cleaning only to find that the mess has somehow inundated the entire room in my absence. But Lily laughs and we can't help but breathe a prayer of thankfulness for the healing God has worked in her body over these past 9 months. Come spring, I look forward to having a yard sale and simplifying but for now, we gather up and scoot over and squeeze into or home.

Inevitably, a crawling baby confined to a small space is sure to be drawn to every forbidden room and each object that has been labeled off limits by mom and dad. Lily is smart. She is discovering right from wrong and pushing the limits. Lily is sweet. She loves petting her stuffed animals and jabbering to her toys. Most of all, Lily is curious about anything and everything- a magnet, a string, cords, cables, shaded hideouts under the kitchen table.

How many times have I decided that I was bored? How many nights have I been bored with movies and television while a hundred books sit untouched on the adjacent bookcase? How often do I prefer the solitude afforded to me at the screen of my favorite electronic device while the people I love most are sitting right beside me, available for conversation or play?

I want to experience the world through Lily's eyes. I want to find the ordinary things in life extraordinary and to love people as they are without bias or envy. Every day is a gift that I am not guaranteed. Every moment holds a promise of hope, joy, or grace. God, open my eyes to see the beauty that You have placed all around me. Show me how to live my days to the fullest, without regret or fear, for Your glory and praise. Amen.