Young

There once was a little girl who loved to have her feet tickled.  She would cackle with joy whenever her father grabbed one of her bare feet.  As she grew older, she hated to have her feet tickled and would get angry if her father threatened to go after one of them.  Eventually the game ended between them and they were two adults with adult-like ideas of what fun and happiness were.  They fussed about their finances, their schedules and the vacations they planned.  One day the father died and the grown up little girl sat and reminisced about her dad.  She remembered with a touch of bemusement the times he tickled her and the happiness it once brought her.  Try as she might, the grown up little girl could not dam back the tears that trickled down her cheeks.  "Why did those days have to end", she wondered.  And then the revelation or perhaps just the silly little curiosity came to her.  "What other parts of me have vanished?"  "What other childish joys have I cast aside because I thought them beneath me and my dignity?"  The grown little girl looked over at the ancient picture of her dad that had been taken "just yesterday" sitting on the dresser and released a deep and weary sigh.   It was time to get back to work but she paused for just a moment…

And they had nothing to say.    Luke 14: 6 NIV