He was nearly 5 years old and loved going out on his bike.
Just in our little cul-de-sac with very few cars and of course he always stayed on the footpath.
Then there was the day that he didn't stay on the footpath and our little dare devil decided to go round the corner at the end of the cul de sac where a pile of sand was lying and he toppled his bike.
He wasn't on his own, his older brother was there on his bike and a couple of friends so they came running home with Daniel and the blood pouring from his top lip.
He had split his lip and needed to go to the hospital (which fortunately was only 5 mins drive away).
Okay I was rather sad that he was probably going to have a little scar above his lip but it didn't seem to bother Daniel at all.
He was quite used to falls and bumps and cuts and scrapes from he was very young and we have always laughed at the fact that even though we wanted to get a family picture taken when he was a year old we couldn't manage to get a time when his face didn't show some marks until he was almost two.
I often thought that people would look at him and then at me and say to themselves
What kind of a mother is she?
Here he is at 3 years old in the spring and then in the summer.
But he didn't let any of those bumps and falls stop him doing anything he wanted to and with as much vigor and speed as possible.
Nothing kept that boy down.
This pic the following year shows how he just could not get on that slide quick enough.
Well he healed reasonably well from that split lip not helped by the fact that this boy was an avid eater and also wanted those steri-strips off as soon as possible.
It was only a few weeks later on a Sunday afternoon just as we finished Sunday lunch that one of his friends arrived at the back door and Daniel was asking to go out to play in that cul-de-sac again.
He had not been outside much since the fall and we said ok but not on your bike and be careful.
We had a step,
just one step at the back door,
but that was all it took.
That one step where he tripped in his eagerness to get out to play and split the lip yet again.
This time the cut was at the opposite angle to the last one so in the end two crossing scars featured above that lip.
Here he is starting P1 at school just 2 weeks before his 5th birthday.
This time of course I was more worried but not Daniel.
Nothing kept that boy down.
As soon as it healed he was back to his normal self; going everywhere and doing everything at double the speed of everyone else.
He was full of energy and enthusiasm.
He bounced back!
Ready to do anything that was adventurous and full of fun.
The following years had him playing and racing with older kids and wanting to win at all costs.
As he grew to be a teenager and then into his twenties he has never been the one to let something stop him trying things out and being actively involved in sports and music and church work and friendships.
As for the bumps and cuts and scrapes they may have turned into other setbacks and hurts through the years but still
He is full of energy and enthusiasm.
He has always bounced back!
I look at Daniel and wonder why we can not all be like that.
Why do we not bounce back?
Why are we not full of energy and enthusiasm?
Some days the smallest of things can just knock us down and we don't bounce back or at least not for quite some time.
Sometime maybe you were so hurt by something you just can not let yourself be in the position to be hurt like that again.
Sometime maybe you have failed at something and decided that it was best not to try again.
Sometime maybe you have listened to the wrong words said by someone who just ended up deflating your spirit completely and you have never been able to get free of that feeling of worthlessness.
Sometime maybe you have been misunderstood and you have suffered from that and you don't want to be in a similar position again so you don't open up with people anymore.
It's time for us to be more like Daniel and the Bible Character he was named after.
We are not worthless or failures in God's eyes.
It's time to do what God wants us to do
and not to fear rejection,
or attitudes of others
or decide we don't have the energy to fight a cause.
If God tells us to do something or has given us the ability to do something then we need to be obedient and put all our effort and enthusiasm into the task whether it is great or small.
How?
Let's believe His Word.
That's the energy and enthusiasm that God will give us if we trust and ask Him.
I am so thankful that we are not worthless or failures in God's eyes.
So let's bounce back from the things of the past.
Let's be able to say
Nothing kept me down.
