She doesn’t walk—she stomps.
She doesn’t run—she lunges.
There is more subtlety in a stick of dynamite than in the two-year-old we know and adore as Ava. But once those magnificent blue eyes of hers lock with yours—especially while she flashes her impish grin—you will be reduced to play dough in her chunky hands.
Ava recently spent a Saturday with us, amusing and entertaining my wife and me from breakfast through late afternoon. The two-year-old tutor also tried to teach me a lesson along the way.
It started when I coughed. Ava immediately whipped her head away from what she was doing and asked, “You okay?” Her extended eye-contact lent a sincerity to the moment that caught me off guard.
Later that morning she heard my wife, Diana, sneeze. “Are you okay?” she again intoned, a living picture of care and comfort. Sensing my struggle in attempting to repair the door of our mailbox she once again inquired, “You okay?”
Ava is soon to be a big sister, and she practices her “sistering” and “mothering” on two dolls we keep in the toy room. Once, in a moment of pretend troubles, I overheard Ava asking her dolls, “You okay?” The dolls must have signaled they were fine, as there was no further dialogue on the matter.
But what if you and I asked each other the same question with the same sincerity as Ava? What if we regularly looked lovingly at our spouse and inquired, “You okay?” And what if we put down our phones and tablets long enough to really listen?
What if all day long friends and coworkers heard from our mouth, “You okay?” And what if we followed that question with that rarest of gifts—our undivided attention? What if the one thing that defined our reputation was the willingness to ask—and listen—for the answer to that lovely question, “You okay?”
Wouldn’t the world outside find the Jesus inside us irresistible?
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” –John 13:35