A popular children’s television host
once said, “Play is seen as a respite from serious learning, but for children,
play is serious learning.” Indeed,
children learn many vital skills when they are playing, such as how to interact
with others. As we grow older, though, play often gets pushed behind work, and
we forget how to have fun, let alone have fun in the first place. Yet I believe
that as adults, we can still learn things through play – how to form
strategies, how to think logically, how to win (and lose) graciously. Games not
only provide a way to have fun; they also allow us to exercise our mental
muscles.
Play is a characteristic of not just
humans, but mammals in general. Play is essential for our mental health. So why
do we feel that it is necessary either to suppress it or to turn play into
something that’s not much fun at all? The psychology of such questions is beyond
me, but I do know this: There is truth in the saying, “All work and no play
makes Jack a dull boy.”
I can imagine the creation as a
perfect balance between work and play. Yes, God rested after the six days of
creation, so it had to have been work on some level, but all you have to do is
look around the natural world to see what fun God must have had during the
creation. As the saying goes, if you think God doesn’t have a sense of humor,
look at the platypus. And after the creation, the Bible reminds us that God saw
that it was very good. May we ever be mindful to strive for a good balance
between work and play, so that at the end of the day, we can say that the day
was very good, too.
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