“I want to see everything.”

That’s our three-year-old grandson, Ben. He walks into the garage. He walks into my study. He looks around. He gestures. And he says, “I want to see everything.”

Often, seeing everything includes seeing with his hands.

And then starts the process of distraction, redirection, explanation, experimentation, education, and resolution.

The latter, resolution, is for me. “Before he comes the next time, put that away, put that out of sight.”

And I usually forget until his next visit.

I, on the other hand, have seen too much. I’ve read all the things.

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You may have thought that this was going to be about cultivating the curiosity of a three-year-old. That’s for a different motivational blog.

Or that this was going to be about Jesus. Kids were curious and were coming to him. He was willing to talk, apparently. He was willing to listen, apparently. He was willing.

Or that this was going to be about gratitude that at least we have a grandson.

I didn’t really have a point when I started writing. Because Ben isn’t an object lesson. He would tell you that if you asked.

“Ben, are you an object lesson?”

“No,” he’d say slowly, shaking his head. “I’m Ben. And I’m three.”

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We think we are constantly looking for object lessons and making meaning. But really, we’re taking meaning and being made objects for advertisers and scammers and headline grabbers.

Ben will be that, too. Which is why I’m working on explaining and helping him experiment. So are the people around him. As he’s getting old enough for the first memories he’ll have when he’s thirty, we want him to remember being loved.

Which, of course, is why Jesus let those kids come near.