Slide to Unlock

Every iPhone has the key phrase of access on the main screen -
"Slide to Unlock". 

In other words:

Swipe to enter. 

Run your finger across, left to right - to get in. 

It's a right of passage to access the smart phone world.

I drove past a playground in town, watching kids running, skipping and sliding down slides. The best view was a grandmother getting ready to let gravity take her slightly plump body down the kids' slide. I stopped to watch this. Jumping all around on the ground were three happy ecstatic children, convulsing IN the moment, shouting up to their grandma,
"Go, grandma! GO! You can do it! You can do it!"

Without too much coercion, grandma pushed her large-framed body away from the hand railings and plummeted down the slide to the end. Awaiting her were three beaming children, unconscious with laughter and hugs, screaming,
"Do it again, grandma! Do it again!"
She picked herself up off the ground, laughing and said,
"Oh my, I'm not as young as I used to be! I don't know if I can do it again.... but I'll try."

While I was watching this scene, I was also replaying a similar scene in my head of years ago. It's such irony to be totally present in the present, but sometimes reflecting and looking back - all at the same time.

Slide to unlock the joy. 
Slide to unlock the laughter. 
Slide to unlock the memories..
Slide to unlock the mystery of the gospel.

You'll have full access to the kingdom, when you slide to unlock the child within you.

Matthew 18:3
The Message
 2-5 For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me.