No one would dispute that one-year-olds learn fast. In January, I left home for just 2 weeks, and when I returned, Emerald had learned all kinds of new things. Though she’d been good at giving slobbery kisses when I left, by the time I got back she’d learned how to pucker up and lean in with a tender “mmmmm,” inviting the kiss-ee to come closer. She’d also learned to take the caps off marking pens and write on herself, and to pull things off table edges.

Though I tried to keep careful track of her that first babysitting gig after coming home, she surprised me anyway. A water bottle I use while ironing had found its way into her lap, and she’d learned to spray it. I found her dousing herself with one squirt after another, accompanied by a little gasp each time the cold water hit her, followed by a giggle.

Squirt, gasp, giggle. Squirt, gasp, giggle.

When she saw me, she grinned as if to say, “Look what I learned!” Her face was dripping and her shirt soaked, but that didn’t suppress her joy over learning something new. Later that same day I was making my bed, tucking in the edges. Emerald watched and immediately imitated my hand motions with her pudgy fingers.

Although babies never lose their zeal for learning, somewhere along the way the rest of us do. Our perspective is no longer, “I can do this!” but more like, “I hope I can figure it out.”

Maybe our cerebral cortexes have no more free space to make new rivulets. Or maybe we’re just tired. But the truth is, we absolutely must keep learning. If we opt out, we’re on our way to watching life from a chair in the corner.

There is some good news, though. God wired us to be capable of learning throughout our lives and encourages us to do and be everything he’s planned for us. As the Great Facilitator, he can take any daunting task and open our understanding to it as we ask him for help. And if we continue to show a willingness to learn, he’ll continue to assist, eventually smiling along with us when we “get it.”

In my prayer group this week (all of us in our 60’s), we agreed that the more we learn, the more we see is left to learn. To say it the opposite way, if we don’t try, we feel we aren’t missing much. But when we discover there’s always much more to learn, God wants us to relate that insight to himself, that there’s never an end to what we can learn of him, either. No matter how much know, there will always be more.

As for Emerald, she’s done it again. This week she learned to drive!

“Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance.” (Proverbs 1:5)