O God, You have taught me from my youth…—PSALM 71:17 (NKJV)
Children are voracious learners, and I think it’s because they have pure motives. They are not pursuing a degree or a six-figure income. They just want to know how the world works. They are driven by the passion of curiosity.
I hand my grandson a shoe box. “Here, Abram, you can have this.” The rest of the day he “studies” the box. He will fill it up and empty it out 20 times. He will throw it through the air, float it on a mud puddle and pull it around the yard with a string. At the end of the day, he has a PhD in shoe boxes and then he will move on to the study of paper clips or bricks.
One of the best students I ever had in my classes was an early retiree who had always wanted to go to college. He had heart trouble, but he was the first one on campus every day and the last one to leave. His hand was always in the air with questions and he hung around after class to learn more. His heart gave out before he could graduate, but he died a very happy man.
As I get older, I find myself returning to the way I learned as a child. I bought some old high school textbooks at a sale, and at bedtime I’m reading with fascination the history I hated in school because of tests and homework.
Out in the garage I’ve been tinkering, hoping to invent something like, oh, cold fusion. So far the only fusion was when I Super-glued my fingers together. Go ahead and laugh, but I’m having a blast just being curious, experimenting and exploring the way I did when I was six.
Thank You, Lord, for giving us the gift of curiosity.
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