Magic Shows and Hidden Lessons

A key to surviving the summer as a parent is to be shrewd in terms of you plan activities for your children. It's important that you don't overschedule or underschedule and it's also important that you provide a healthy mix of activities which are physically stimulating (e.g. sports), intellectually stimulating (e.g. math camp) while also ensuring that your kid actually likes the activities to some degree. Finding a good Vacation Bible School program or two is always nice, and at the end of the day, it'd be nice if you didn't need to take out a second mortgage for the programs that require payment. Oh, a healthy dose of self-directed and neighborhood free play is good, too. I have no idea if we hit the mark in our "portfolio" but we tried.

One of the summer activities that my wife and I enrolled our son Daniel in was a Science & Technology Camp at a local college. Now before you start prejudging me as a helicopter parent, this wasn't one of those science and technology camps where he coded iPhone games or develop a solid fuel propulsion rocket. We're talking about things like fun with weather, math wizardry and the course which I thought was most cool, Magic Show.

Okay, I admit that since my wife is much more on top of this than I am, I was surprised when Daniel came hope with a bag of magic tricks and a magician's hat after his last day of class this past Friday. Laying down each trick on the table and placing the hat on his head, he gesticulated with great fanfare as we sat down and prepared for the show. He introduced each trick with flair and enthusiasm: "For my next trick, I will now..." and "I will now ask my assistant to..." while also showing an entrepreneurial spirit: "If you liked this trick, you may add dollar to the dish being passed around." Between his love for performing his act and realizing that it earned him some cash, Daniel ended up doing shows twice this weekend, once with some old friends who came over and once with his grandparents.

What's really cool - as my wife told me - is that the class really isn't about magic. It's mostly about confidence in public speaking and presentation. It's brilliant - the camp used a topic which captivates 7-year old boys and girls (magic tricks) and uses it as a platform on which to teach the children valuable lessons in topic they'd otherwise have no interest in. That makes sense. I can imagine my wife going through the camp catalog with Daniel and saying, "Ooooh, public speaking, presentation skills and forensics... doesn't that sound like a fun course, honey?"

I think this is that way that God teaches us, as well. Most of the things that I go through, joyful and painful has a hidden lesson which helps me further understand the greatness of Christ and my need for Him. In interactions with my children I understand more of His unconditional love and His grief over my own sin. In interactions with friend, I understand more about the synergistic nature of Christian community and service in the Kingdom of God. This is good because like my son, sometimes it takes alternative means to get me learn lessons I need to take in.