This past Friday I spent the day at Sea World, San Antonio, with 6th graders, including my son, Caleb.
It had been sometime since my last visit. Before, Caleb was about six, and now he is twelve. Then I had two children and now I have three. Then, I don't remember as many rides, rollercoasters, things that get you wet, etc.
One thing that was the same was Shamu. I am 44 years old, and I cried when I saw Shamu. Why?
One reason is because of the passing of time. Sitting three seats down from me in the arena was Caleb. Now twelve, I still remember his first visit. When he was young, some of you might remember, he carried an animal around with him everywhere, all of the time. A toy elephant for a while, a tiger, a lion, sometimes a whale. There was that one time he carried a spatula with him to church, but that was an anomaly. He picked up on animals quickly and knew quite a lot about them.
We had told him about Shamu, the whale. When we arrived at Sea World those years ago, we went directly to the arena for the Shamu show. The build up by us and by the staff with the music, the video, all of the anticipation made us anxious for the whale's arrival. And when he did arrive, breech the water, falling back in with a monstrous splash, we looked at Caleb, and he stood there with an animal in his hand, a glow and a smile on his face, and tears in his eyes. It seemed that he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
So, time has passed. He didn't cry this time. I did. But he clapped and enjoyed it.
Another reason was that I was glad that he was enjoying the show. Some in our group began asking how long the show was almost immediately because they wanted to get back to the roller coasters, and I was thankful that Caleb was not asking that. I want him to keep the sense of wonder.
Man makes roller coasters.
Only God makes whales.
It had been sometime since my last visit. Before, Caleb was about six, and now he is twelve. Then I had two children and now I have three. Then, I don't remember as many rides, rollercoasters, things that get you wet, etc.
One thing that was the same was Shamu. I am 44 years old, and I cried when I saw Shamu. Why?
One reason is because of the passing of time. Sitting three seats down from me in the arena was Caleb. Now twelve, I still remember his first visit. When he was young, some of you might remember, he carried an animal around with him everywhere, all of the time. A toy elephant for a while, a tiger, a lion, sometimes a whale. There was that one time he carried a spatula with him to church, but that was an anomaly. He picked up on animals quickly and knew quite a lot about them.
We had told him about Shamu, the whale. When we arrived at Sea World those years ago, we went directly to the arena for the Shamu show. The build up by us and by the staff with the music, the video, all of the anticipation made us anxious for the whale's arrival. And when he did arrive, breech the water, falling back in with a monstrous splash, we looked at Caleb, and he stood there with an animal in his hand, a glow and a smile on his face, and tears in his eyes. It seemed that he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
So, time has passed. He didn't cry this time. I did. But he clapped and enjoyed it.
Another reason was that I was glad that he was enjoying the show. Some in our group began asking how long the show was almost immediately because they wanted to get back to the roller coasters, and I was thankful that Caleb was not asking that. I want him to keep the sense of wonder.
Man makes roller coasters.
Only God makes whales.
posted by Brian Miller at 4:43 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for wanting your 12-year old to keep that sense of wonder...I worry that my 2-year old will grow out of that way too quickly so I'm glad to hear that Caleb still has that. We sure do love you guys--thanks for the blog, I look forward to your new posts whenever I see them.
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