HOPSCOTCH

"The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore." ~ Psalm 121:8 ~


Remember back in the day when we played that old game called Hopscotch? Oh what fun we had! We must've played that game a thousand times.

First, we used a pointed stick to draw the hopscotch diagram in the dirt: One square box, then two side-by-side; Another square box, another two side-by-side; We repeated that a third time, then added one last box to complete it.

Next, we found a marker—usually a piece of broken glass or a bottle top—and tossed it from box to box, (in sequence, of course) while hopping back and forth with one foot in the single boxes and two feet in the double boxes. If we tossed our marker outside the line or accidentally hopped a foot outside it, we’d loose a turn and have to wait for our time to start over.

While hopscotch was mostly played by energetic young folk, it required a great deal of strategy and skill. And for every ounce of fun we enjoyed, there were times when we became equally frustrated.

Come to think of it, we’re still caught up in that hopscotch shuffle today. Whether we realize it or not, each of our lives demands some sort of strategy and skill to stay afloat. And indeed, fun and frustration continue to swarm around us.

One unforgettable fact of the hopscotch from yesteryear is that no matter how frustrating the game became—or we became—we kept on playing.

Isn’t that so much like our lives today? In order to "play the game" of life, we hop back and forth with our various strategies and skills. We’re sometimes successful . . . and sometimes not. We fall down . . . but we get up.

True, we don’t always hit the mark. And, yes, our feet still get tangled up now and then. We suffer losses. Starting over is often necessary. But regardless of how stressed or how upset we become, we must keep on keeping on. For we've discovered, back in those youthful years, that there are times in life when we don’t always win.

Whether engaged in a fun game of hopscotch or a frustrating game of having-to-cope-with-life, keep hopping.


Peace I leave with you . . .