Play and Delight (Rev. Steve Blackmer)
Play and Delight
In the beginning, God made stuff. Then God messed around with the stuff and made something — a world! It was good! It was very good! God saw the world and delighted in it! So too, should we begin.
The great sin of the “environmental movement” is that it (I!) too often begin with loss, fear, anxiety, regret, anger, and despair. And that is no way to build a world.
A world begun in fear and loss will surely end in fear and loss. A world begun in love will — eventually, through many trials and tribulations — end in love. There’s a whole Book about this!
The great gift that children bring is to remind us to begin with play, with delight, with joy, with wonder. With love. If we fall in love with the world around us, we will be moved to care for it.
So parents, take your kids outdoors. Let them mess around in the dirt, mud, grass, and trees. Let them run and fall down. Let them climb. Let them dig. Let them taste (with care, yes) and see that God is good. Let them get wet.
This is how Sunday School should begin — the same way God did and the world did. They will fall in love with the world. They will be delighted by it. They will wonder about it. Teach them to love it, to delight in it. And let the rest take care of itself.
Play with the world around you. Delight in it.
Begin in love and you will end in love.
It is good — very good!
##
In 2009, Rev. Steve Blackmer stepped away from a 25 year career in conservation to attend church for the first time, be baptized, attend Yale Divinity School, and become a priest. Currently Steve is chaplain at Church of the Woods and founding executive director at Kairos Earth.
