Rome, who only 1 year old, picked up a plastic spade and began playing it, pretending it was a guitar. It has the right shape. Anything can become a guitar in his hands. He has seen guitars at Church and as he danced he made sounds like he was playing one of the upbeat worship songs. We danced and sang with him.
Two of my grandsons had come to our house. It was a great time. Super heroes, wrestling matches and Rachel, their Mum and my daughter, reading them stories.
Sometimes, of course, there can be tears and complaints when the brothers don’t co-operate or participate with their games and they can be very stubborn and insistent, but mostly we laughed and played the afternoon away.
Sometimes, when the game becomes too demanding, I revert to being an ADULT and Rachel says, "Zion, don’t bother Pa. He doesn’t want to play right now."
So when Jesus compares His generation with children playing games I am right there with Him. I know the joys and occasionally the hassles of children and their games. What I notice is that JESUS DOESN’T DANCE TO THE TUNE OF THE RELIGIOUS EXPECTATIONS AROUND HIM.
Jesus says, "To what can I compare this generation? It is like CHILDREN PLAYING A GAME .... They complain to their friends, ‘We played wedding songs, and YOU DIDN’T DANCE, so we played funeral songs, and you didn’t mourn.’ ... But wisdom is shown to be right by its results." (Matthew 11:16-19 NLT)