And there they are.
Plastic lawnmowers.
Now why would a kid pick a plastic lawnmower out of hundreds of yards of mind-numbing, brightly colored items of foreign origin?
“Hey, kiddo, you wanna get a Power Rangers Chess Set with Digitalized Death Sounds and Destructo Laser Eradication?”
“Naw. I wanna plastic lawnmower.”
Shaking my head, I walk out of the store, my course determined. I head to the coffee shop to ponder this phenomenon.
Well, I was headed there anyway. It just works out.
Over a steaming Fair Trade cup of the Elixir of Knowledge, I ponder and sip.
Huh.
Why a plastic lawnmower? It’s a tool. It involves work. It . . .
Wow. This Elixir works.
I think I understand: the kid wants the lawnmower because his dad mows the lawn.
And he wants to be like his dad.
He could care less about the gizmos, the marketing, the cacophony of important people telling him he needs said gizmos. How he needs all these to "fit in".
He just wants to be like his dad, not everyone else. Just . . . dad.
Maybe that’s why Jesus says “Blessed are the children” and “Whoever comes as a child”.
He calls folks that don’t want the glitzy toys of the world. It's not important for them to "fit in".
They just wanna be like their Dad.