“Elise, what animal can jump higher than a house?” Elise’s dad was asking her a really hard
question.
Elise thought and thought.
“I think that Mr. Dinosaur can jump higher than a house!” She told me with confidence. (Mr. Dinosaur is a small stuffed T. Rex that hangs out with Elise at bedtime.)
Elise’s sister, Victoria, was listening in on this
conversation and she decided to put in her two cents. “No, Elise,” she said. “Any animal can jump higher than a house,
because a house can’t jump!”
“Well,” I said, trying to encourage both of my
daughters. “Elise is right that a
dinosaur can probably jump higher than a house (that is, if there were any
dinosaurs still around to jump), but Victoria you are right that houses don’t
jump.”
I began thinking about this riddle and I realized that it
isn’t totally accurate. I suppose that
any animal can jump as high as a house, but some animals simply don’t
jump. Elephants, Hippos, Rhinos, and
Sloths do not jump at all, therefore they can’t jump higher than a house –
they, like a house, don’t jump.
Somehow from there, my mind went to the famous theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking couldn’t jump higher than a house, although
to turn things around a little bit, a house couldn’t jump higher than Stephen
Hawking either. I’m not sure who should
feel worse about this comparison, the house or Stephen Hawking.
(I know Mr. Hawking is no longer with us, but it still is an
interesting theoretical thing to contemplate.)
Then, what about Baba Yaga’s house? Since it stands on chicken legs, surely it
cannot only walk around, but jump!
Suddenly, my amazing riddle to stump my four-year-old daughter disappeared
in a cloud of mythological dust.
Some of us, quite simply are over thinkers. We analyze things to death – even children’s
riddles that are simply designed to amuse and not bemuse the hearers. The problem, of course, is that overthinking
can lead to anxiety and distress.
Psalms 94:19 says, “When doubts filled my mind, your comfort
gave me renewed hope and cheer.” (NLT)
There isn’t really any solution for doubt and anxiety better
than relying on God and feeling His comforting arms supporting us. For, doubts do dismay and anxieties destroy
peace, but God’s love reaches past all of them to give wholeness.
He even grants peace to those of us who can’t decide who
really can jump higher than a house.
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