A few weeks ago, our church went camping as a group at a local state park. It was such a wonderful time of relaxing and chatting with friends. An older couple, John and Susan, used to attend our church years ago. They had moved away several years ago, but being avid campers, when they heard we were doing this as a church, they decided to join us. I took advantage of the quiet mornings before everyone else was up except for John. We would share life stores while sipping our morning coffees, and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about his journeys in life.

One particular morning, our 2-year-old granddaughter, Kamryn, joined us. She had stayed the night with us in the RV, and being a toddler with far more energy than any person should have, she was up and going with John and me. As we were chatting, we noticed Kamryn poking around the ground just outside the pavilion as if she was digging up dirt. We asked her what she was doing, and she exuberantly announced, “I found a dinosaur!” Of course, John and I just looked at each other and giggled. We shook our heads and went back to our coffee and storytelling. A short time later, Kamryn was at the same spot digging and poking around again. When we inquired the second time, we received the same answer…. “Nonna, I found a dinosaur!” John smiled as he replied to her, “Are you sure it’s not just a big bug?” “No, it’s not a bug,” Kamryn stated with tremendous conviction while waving her stick in the air.  She lowered her stick to point to her discovery an exclaimed… “Right here!  It’s a dinosaur! Come and see!!”

John and I set our coffees down on the picnic table and headed over to where Kamryn was standing, still pointing to the ground and repeatedly stating “Right here!  It’s a dinosaur, Nonna! Right here!”  As we got closer, we were sure we would find a large prehistoric-looking bug or maybe a T-rex-shaped stone, or just a figment of the vivid imagination of a 2-year-old.  You can imagine the look on our faces when I knelt down and picked up a small, dirty plastic dinosaur.  It was difficult to even recognize the toy for all the mud, so we were impressed that this child found it and even more impressed that she was so determined to stand up to her conviction that what she had found was, indeed, a dinosaur.

A Baby Boomer and a Gen Xer learned a valuable lesson that morning from an innocent, inquisitive, lively toddler playing in the mud with a stick.  First, I thought of what Jesus said… “Out of the mouths of babes…. You have perfected praise!”  This little girl was ecstatic that she had found a dinosaur.  You would have thought it was made of chocolate and marshmallows.  And if that wasn’t enough, it really made her day when I cleaned it off and gave it to her to play with. Secondly, and most importantly, she displayed such a stance of fortitude and confidence as she shared her discovery.  Kamryn knew she had found a dinosaur, and even in the face of reproach and cynicism, she stood her ground with stick in hand and a countenance that forced John and me to look at what she found even if it was intended to just appease the toddler. 

If only we, Christians displayed such joy when we discover even the smallest of blessings.  Sometimes the blessings are right in our face, and other times we have to look past the mud like Kamryn did to see the dinosaur.  How Jesus works in our lives on a daily basis can go unnoticed.  Furthermore, if we do notice and thank Him for His goodness, we may tend to not tell others. We should always be willing to share our blessings.  We need to be relentless when sharing Jesus and standing up for the values taught in Scripture.  We must be brave when we face criticism for our faith.  When Jesus repeated Psalm 8:2, He had just been chastised by the chief priests and scribes… some of the religious leaders of the day.  The children who were present looked beyond the doubters and naysayers to recognize who Jesus really was. The children had made a great discovery and were not afraid to shout out with praise. No… it wasn’t a dinosaur in the mud… but the Son of David!!

Out of the mouth of babes!