Beaver

When I was a kid, one of my favorite TV shows was “Leave it to Beaver.” Beaver was known as a dreamer, and in one episode, he ponders the possibility of an airplane, with a rich passenger on board, carrying a briefcase full of money.  He said to one of his friends, “What if that airplane window accidentally opened, and the briefcase fell out the window, and it landed in my yard, and I found it?”

The dreamer thought it was a real possibility.  What if? I remember my 10-year-old self, also thinking that was totally possible.  What if?

I loved the optimism of that that kid.

There's something about being 10. The world still feels wide open. You ask, "What if?" instead of "Why bother?" You look up at the sky and actually believe something amazing might fall into your backyard.

Then life happens.

Struggle. Trauma. Defeat. For many of us, those things arrive long before we even turn 10. They leave marks. They rewire how we think. Slowly, quietly — we stop dreaming. We stop believing. The optimism fades.

I try to bring myself back to that kid.

Back to the version of me that looked up instead of down. That believed for the best, not the worst. That saw possibility where others saw closed doors.

Here's the thing though — when I look up at the sky today, I'm pretty sure no one's dropping a briefcase full of cash into my backyard.

But the 10-year-old inside me? He whispers: "…but what if they did?"

And when I look up at that same sky, here's what I do know: I see lights that I believe were placed there by God. And I'm reminded that every good and perfect gift He's given me — the ones I can't hold in a suitcase — are worth far more than any amount of money.

The briefcase was never really the point.

Thanks, Beaver.

Keep looking up. ✨