Childhood is amazing. It is the begining of all things. It runs the gamut of original thoughts and experiences from realizing that those funny fingers waving in front of your face belong to your hands, attached to your arms, attached to your body and are a part of you – to the rambunctious things you should never do and hope to survive.

Learning means asking questions like “why” so repeatedly that parents can’t think of a response, and frustration becomes a possible alternative. 

Beginning wisdom means challenging right authority and discovering what it means to be wrong in large and little ways. “Mom, you don’t love me because you won’t give me my Halloween candy before dinner.” “You are so mean making me go to bed before ‘Night of the Tarantula’ comes on.” “No! I don’t want to take out the garbage!” And other like opportunities to test the difference between right and wrong. My personal list would be too long for a book, much less a blog.

Beginning survival lessons make you wonder how boys live long enough to become men. Some of us dove off the roof of a neighbor’s house into the shallow end of the pool until mom caught us. She had the most amazing gestures and sounds when she looked up and saw me leaving the roof. Boys build forts in the woods. My friends and I took turns climbing to the top of a tree and having it cut so we could ride it to the ground as we gathered the materials for our fortress. Stitches and bruises (and occasionally more) seemed to be a normal part of life.

Beginning relationships was arduous. Girls started out being soft boys to having cooties to being so pretty that you couldn’t open your mouth and say anything that didn’t sound stupid. Friendship with boys also traveled from physical play to verbal play as rough-housing changed with time. Relationships with parents traveled through many stages, as did relationships with other adults. They began by giving constantly and meeting demands. I had the “gimme” gene. Then there was authority and reprisals, lessons applied for not recognizing it. They had lots of information to transmit. My responses  went from “Don’t bother me” to “Why do I need to know that” to “Okay, I might listen” to “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

It is amazing how much I thought I knew at each stage of being a child, even though I was unformed in all directions I was moving. I was physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and all other ways immature. I came to an age of being a father with my own children and was able to see my past immaturity as I saw my own children struggle with the same tumble into life and understanding. I, of course, observed this in reflection as a mature adult. Ha! Wrong! I often thought I would like a do-over to override or to not do the many, many silly mistakes. Now I have my second childhood.

I have come to recognize that salvation is that do-over/second childhood. Through Christ I have entered life a second time. I have entered into a new/different world. There are similarities, but also so many differences. I know those fingers and body are mine, but they are for a purpose and a plan, not just to find food and get it to my face. Learning systems have changed as the living Jesus is the personal trainer, using His Word and His revelation to retrain values, relationships, priorities, actions, authority, and all the functions of real life versus the shabby form of life I was living in. 

Every day is the day that I get my do-over. My parents were Christians, as were so many of their friends. They did their best to prepare me for the day of salvation. They read me the Bible and shared the truth within it. They modeled what they had learned and tried their best to help me build a heavenly life style. I entered salvation and became aware of all that they had given me and tried to do for me. I am profoundly grateful.

However, to Jesus, I am younger than I was to my parents when I was born. I have found that immaturity knows no age limit. I am as messy now, if not more so, than I was as a baby. Now I am learning not to be ashamed or embarrased by that. I have a family of Christians to grow up with. I have a living Lord who is not offended by mistakes but is ever present to teach and grow me.

Now, being willing and ready to learn is the most wonderful trait because I’m always being given an opportunity. I am learning to love this do-over or second-childhood, knowing that it is a joy to be in this position and place instead of always wanting to be somewhere else, someone else, or older with more privileges (forgetting the responsibilities which come with privileges). This is the childhood I always wanted and didn’t know it.

Life wasn’t easy before, not now, when life is hard, there are layers of joy and hope that weren’t available before. This is the life for me.