When my youngest daughter was four years old, she was convinced that the train that runs near our house carried circus animals. Dancing bears, prancing ponies, and tigers lulled to sleep by the sound of the wheels moving along the tracks.

Should I have told her otherwise?…Probably.

Did I? No.

Why did I let her believe such nonsense?

Well…because I knew that someday she wouldn’t.

Someday, she wouldn’t run with excitement to the window shouting, “The train is coming!”  There would come a day when the sound of a train would simply mean being three minutes late to a meeting. She would forget how fun it was to count the cars that went zooming by and instead, she would be frustrated by having to wait in a world where waiting isn’t an option.  All too soon, she would talk on her cell phone instead of rolling down the window to hear the clickety-clack of metal rolling against metal. 

As my children grow older, I can feel the magic slowly leaving my house.  You know what I mean.  The magic that turns a cardboard box into a race car, a stick into a sword, and a blanket fort into a mighty castle.

It pains me to think that these days will soon be over, but I have no regrets.  We’ve spent many days traveling to the moon and back.  We’ve ridden horses over high mountains and dove deep into the sea in colorful submarines.

Oh, the places we’ve been!

We’ve been super heroes and lions in the jungle.  We’ve been doctors and princesses, hair stylists and bank tellers.  We’ve prepared feasts for kings and cowboys.  We’ve slept under the stars and next to friendly dragons.

I’ve been invited into many card table houses for pine cone soup and coconut tea. Good thing, too, as the blustery day would soon turn into howling winds blowing pale pink snow and lots of it!  100 inches in only five minutes!  Truly amazing! No one could have predicted this beautiful blanket of cotton candy that would force us to stay inside our little house and read book after book until the storm passed.

We would cuddle up with flashlights and pillows giggling until our faces hurt from smiling.  We’d have some more soup, wash our dishes, and put the babies to bed. We needed our sleep as we would be off on a space mission to Mars in the morning.  We’d shut our doors tight since the big bad wolf was prowling outside and then, we’d turn out the lights and say, “Good night.”

No worries…we had our wolf spray, just in case.

Friends, if you have young children, I encourage you to do everything you can to hang onto this magic.  It is so easy to hand those little ones a device or turn on the TV, but I promise you…time is ticking.

I beg you to drape a blanket over a chair.  Hand them some pots and pans.  Give them a giant spoon for a microphone and a towel for a cape.

Give them a box.  Better yet, give them three.

You’ll see.

Step back and watch all the magic that comes from using that wonderful imagination God has given both of you.

And that circus train, you ask?

Well, on that day, I didn’t have the heart to tell her.

After all, what if that had been the day the elephant lifted his trunk high above the train car and waved, as if to say…

“Hello, Paige! It’s always good to see you.”