A Child Shaped Door

I just love epiphanies (when the light goes on)... really good ones tend to put a silly smile on your face..something like this, to be sure...dear Richard Briers..isn't he lovely!

via google

All this talk of childlike-ness has been perculating around my brain quite a lot in the last month or so. In the process I have come to realize, that I don't really have any fond or wonderful childhood Christmas memories. Christmas time for me has always been associated with loss, tension, obligation & a nagging feeling that something rather fundamental was lacking in the whole deal. It was when I felt most like a misfit, unimportant & unseen. Wonder seems to have leaked through the floor of my little life. 

Wonder only flourishes when you feel safe & loved & secure.

 I am having another go & learning to be childlike again.

Things are becoming simpler nowadays.

I've discovered childlikeness means you notice stuff, you happily live in the moment & with an open heart.

You don't just walk past the toadstools in the lawn & sometimes you make daisy chains.

You never consider why you love raspberries but hate liver & would not dream of apologising for such preferences. 

All this has made me pause & consider just how many other little ones might be out there feeling insecure & displaced & sad this Christmas...with all the peace, joy & goodwill floating about it's quite easy to feel that such things belong only to others & that nobody wants to hear that you're actually feeling sad & in fact not really merry at all.  

These days I am finally silencing the voices of the critics (inner & outer) & learning just to be..

sometimes there is even joy..

maybe, moments of childlike abandon

and sweetness.

via we heart it

 I do vividly recall, long ago, however, a peculiar feeling that came over me when I was told at Sunday school about Jesus & the Kingdom of Heaven. I decided then..that's the place I want to be...always.

via pinterest

The other day I found this little book for a few cents.

and in it was my favourite Sunday school song "All Things Bright & Beautiful"

It is a mysterious place the Kingdom of Heaven.
And here is my epiphany:
The entranceway is a most unusual shape.

A childlike shape.

 Adults who think they're in charge just won't fit, no matter how much they push & shove & grizzle.
I guess if you're a big person you might have to consider kneeling or maybe bow your head to get through. You certainly can't take a whole pile of your stuff with you, including your own self importance.
Gratitude eases the way... a lot,

silly is ok,

and spontaneous is good.

 my grandsons

All you have to do is be humble of heart

via pinterest

and you get to stand on the other side, bright & free.

 There you'll find that Jesus is King

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..the King who was born in a stable one Christmas day, long, long ago.
Now, that, is precious and wonder-full, don't you think?!
Do pop in to Pom Pom's Ponderings on your way for some other thoughts on a childlike Christmas. It's a grand thing to consider...childlikeness.

 ♥♥♥♥♥