Here we go Looby Loo...

Drifting off to sleep last night, I began remembering all the games I played as a child. Hop Scotch drawn off in the South Georgia sand, marbles played at school with the boys, endless games of jacks on the big front porch of our house, paper dolls with original creations by me, Red Rover, Crack the Whip, Freeze Tag, Hide and Seek, and the ever popular Duck, Duck, Goose. We played Gossip on our bus ride home and Rock, Paper, Scissors. Our work and play flowed together in a seamless whole. Playfulness was the definition of childhood.
The few adults we knew who had not forgotten how to play were beloved by us children. Mr. Howard at church would give us chewing gum before worship and swing us into the air squealing in glee. Mr. Thompson told us jokes and laughed at them before he even got to the punch line. My teacher, Mr. Gurr, sent us out to the playground on the one day it snowed in my childhood, and stood there with his tongue stuck out to taste snow. My grandma who was very German in disposition, would cackle and giggle as we played Chinese Checkers. But most of the grown ups in my life were just that...grown up with most of the playfulness sucked out of them.
When I survey the creation that surrounds me, I see a playful God in evidence. The strut of the rooster with his raucous crow, the graceful deer running over the hills, the lumbering black bear standing up on back legs to rob the bird feeders, chattering squirrels calling each other names as they race through the trees, and all those stars scattered in abandon across the night skies. God’s playground is our world and we get to live in it.
We are, I think, created in the image of our Maker, hard wired to play. When we play, our brain lights up and our souls are lightened up. Today is the Lord’s Day so not only will I go to church, eat lunch and take a nap, I will play. Anybody want to play Looby Lou or do the Hokey Pokey?