March 10 – “I guess it’s time …”

Josh shared a Caleb story with us the other day.  In one of his last basketball games of the season, when most recently-turned-six-year-olds would have lost interest competely and been ready to move on to something different just because, well, because it was time to move on to  something different (That’s just what you do when you are six), Caleb and his team were bravely continuing on, trudging through the final weeks of practice and games, talking often about teeball or soccer or video games or the bug they saw on the way in or whose birthday was coming up or how many Star Wars tie fighters it would take to defeat an army or Pokemon characters or whether the new Baylor football stadium was secretly built out of Legos, or …  well, do you get the picture?  It’s just hard for a six-year-old to concentrate for so long on one thing when there are so many serious problems left to be solved in the world around him.

So Caleb was being less-than-conscientious in playing defense.  Now his Daddy was helping coach, so he of course wanted his son to excel in every way possible.   And since Caleb was at least six inches shorter than any other player on the court anyway, defense had always been his best weapon.  And that weapon had served him well throughout the season.  When Caleb was guarding a man, that guy simply could not get his hands on the ball.  Ever. 

That’s why it came as such a surprise to Josh to see his young charge lackadaisically strolling down court.  Desperate to get his attention, Daddy hollered out, “Caleb, do you see your man?”  Instantly, Caleb stopped in his tracks.  Slowly his hands came up to his face.  Slowly the fingers on each hand formed tiny little circles as fingertips touched thumbtips.  And the circles made their way to his eyes, forming, well, binoculars.  Once equipped with this vision-enhancer, Caleb scanned the court for the kid he had been assigned to guard.  Target acquired.  He raced over to him, still wearing his binoculars.  Now standing right next to his objective, circled eyewear still engaged, he slowly leaned those binoculared eyes down, down, down, until they rested on his opponent’s shoulder.  At that point he cried out confidently to his Dad, “I see him.”  And as his Dad’s head dropped into his hands, the thought crossed his mind, “I guess it’s time for teeball.”  But recovering quickly, as any good coach must, the words that actually came out were closer to, “Attaboy, Caleb.  Stay with him now.”

Psalms 16:7-8 says, “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.  I have set the Lord always before me.  Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.”

Father, thank you for the active, never-stay-too-long-in-one-place mind of a child.  That’s a big world they have to discover, so they need to take advantage of every opportunity.  Amen.