They reveled in a simple thing that cost absolutely nothing.
Thanksgiving, 2020. After enduring almost a year of COVID-19 changes, my wife and I traveled to Arkansas to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter, son-in-law, and two grandsons.
Our daughter’s family, like us, loves to look at Christmas lights. And since many places and people decorate during Thanksgiving, we decided to ride around town to see the lights. Sadly, we didn’t find many homes decorated, but their moderately-sized town did have two small parks and one university that had been adorned for the holidays.
The first night, we just parked in the parking lot and looked. Everyone donned their night clothes, so we didn’t get out—we didn’t know we could walk around. So, we made plans to return the next night for an up-close-and-personal view.
As we got out at each park and the local university, excitement peppered our grandsons’ faces. They ran, yelled, jumped, and paused long enough to enjoy the various lights and Christmas statues. They marveled at the waving Santa and awed over the giant Christmas tree whose lights kept rhythm with different Christmas songs. And all of us admired the long strands of white lights that slithered from stately oak trees at the university park. We felt warmth, even in the frigid night, as icicles of lights surrounded us, descending as if from the heavens.
I hope our grandsons’ love for the simple things will cling to them as they get older, but so often we lose it … only to regain it later in life. Life gets busy. We lose the innocence of childhood … of youth. It takes money and stuff to make us happy. A ride through the park to look at Christmas lights doesn’t seem to do it any longer.
We take pride in a daughter and son-in-law who teach their young boys to find joy in the simple things that don’t cost a penny and in the things God has created. They pause each night to do things together, like walking around the neighborhood or playing board games.
Solomon reminded his readers how wonderful being young is. He encourages the young to enjoy every minute of their youth because the demands of life often overwhelm us, taking with them the freedom and joy of our carefree days.
How I would love to return to my happy-go-lucky younger days. Romping through the neighborhood with friends. Playing Cowboys and Indians. Concocting other games. Not worrying about being kidnapped or shot. Sitting among a mass of clovers looking for a four-leafed one. Times when the days seemed to last forever. No cares. No worries.
God has created a big wide world for us to enjoy, but overbooked schedules and misplaced priorities will keep us from adoring it. We’ll trudge through each day, and before long, life will have passed us by.
But if we learn to slow down, stop, and enjoy the simple things—the things that cost nothing and take us closer to God, nourishing our souls—life will take on new meaning. We’ll wonder why we ever wanted to live any other way.
This Thanksgiving, how can you learn to enjoy the simple things?
(Photo courtesy of pixabay and Goodfreephotos.com.)
(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)
Martin Wiles lives in Greenwood, SC, and is the founder of Love Lines from God. He is a freelance editor, English teacher, pastor, and author who has been published in numerous publications. He also serves as Managing Editor for both Christian Devotions and Vinewords.net. He is the author of six books. His most recent book, Don’t Just Live...Really Live, was released in November 2021. He and his wife are parents of two and grandparents of six. He can be contacted at [email protected].