I don't like working out with anyone else. When I have, I found we spent time talking with less results in spite of more time spent. I also never liked running with someone else. It's hard to keep on the same pace and some people make it a race. That's the great thing about swimming. You are in the water and it's pretty cut and dried (bad pun- sorry) that it's a solitary workout. My summer exercise routine looks like this. On T-TH-S, I lift in the morning and again in the afternoon. On M-W-F, I swim in the AM and again in the PM. On days I really feel motivated, I might sneak a swim in after a lift... or not. I do need to make up for the four weeks I will miss while in Vietnam!
June 2nd was a Friday, so I was in the aquatic mode. Friday morning, I got to the water at about 9:45 and I had the pool to myself.... but I wasn't alone. As I came out of the locker room and rounded the corner, there was a little boy of Chinese descent with his feet barely in the ramp that leads down into the water. I waved at him and he waved back. His mom was standing there as well but not with the intent of swimming. There was a tennis camp going on outside the indoor pool which is enclosed with glass. Mom told me she was also watching her ten year old who was a camper on the courts. I told her she had a handsome son. She beamed and told me his name is Hamilton and he is two years old. I walked to the far end, set my timer, and got in the outside lane. My routine is to swim 3/4s of the pool, run back to the deep end, and repeat the process. As I finished my first length, I was startled to see Hamilton standing right above me on the concrete. And as I ran back, he ran with me. When I reached the end and began my freestyle again, my two year old buddy accompanied me to my turn around spot and we repeated the process. His mom encouraged him and gave him running pointers. He seemed fascinated by both the water and by me. This went on for fifteen minutes or so until his sibling's tennis group went into the indoor courts to continue their lessons. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to work out together once more this summer!
I don't know why Hamilton picked me to emulate but he did. My guess is he is transfixed by water as I was as a little boy. He never tired of accompanying me lap after lap. (Well, semi-lap. If I swim all the way to the wall on the shallow end, the water is not deep enough for running.) I don't think he has any real concept of the danger of water yet but his mom watched him closely. Little ones are breathtakingly innocent while, with no malice intended, brutally honest. They were the ones praising Jesus in the temple on Palm Sunday with the words, "Hosanna to the son of David!" When the religious leaders objected, Jesus replied by quoting Psalm 8:2:
“‘From the lips of children and infants
you, Lord, have called forth your praise’”
That's an amazing statement from the pen of David and further validated by our Savior. Our Father in heaven uses the youngest among us to be examples of worship to the Lord? I love what Charles Dickens said about children when he wrote, "It is no small thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us." Or copy us or act like us. We learn from children- they learn from us. They grow up into us just like we turned into the adults we witnessed. Maybe we can even grow closer to the way they glorify our God- that would be the best growth of all. The mustard seed grew into a tree but the tree was never given as a standard of faith. We cannot afford to overlook the little things, especially the little ones..... like my friend, Hamilton. He's got a future!
Applicable quote of the day:
Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
James A. Baldwin
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
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