My daughter Ashley is a budding photographer.

photo by Ashley Glaze

A few weekends ago, our family went to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Ashley grabbed the camera and got to work. Kneeling to capture a rose in the perfect light or framing the picture in an artistic manner, she was so serious about it all.

I know I’m biased, but I think she is very good! What makes her good is not necessarily her natural talent (though I think that’s part of it), but the fact that she moves slowly, pausing to think and wonder. She lingers among the flowers, considering their beauty, and how they relate to other plants.

photo by Ashley Glaze

Children are good at this kind of slow meditation, while we adults often skip from chore to chore, activity to activity—always thinking of what may be coming next. I’ve even noticed that sometimes we discuss at one meal what we’ll be eating at the next!

Children seem to take life a little slower (if you don’t believe me, try dressing or feeding a 2-year-old). I think they could teach us adults a lesson here. For us to remember that God is God (and we are not) we must be still for a moment (Psalm 46:10).

Ashley’s photographic eye comes from her perspective—an innocent one which sees the world as beautiful and safe, a perspective not jaded by too much human experience. I wish I could see the world through her eyes.

One day Jesus was walking along with his disciples. They had been bickering about the kinds of things you and I, as adults, usually bicker about—what is most important, how to get to heaven, who is the greatest, that sort of thing. Jesus said, “you want to know who is the greatest, you want to know how to get to heaven?” He took a little child, put her before them, and said, “become like her.”