What a French Toddler Taught Me About Wonder

Are you Bored with Monotony?

When I lived aboard the Mercy Ships, I’ve mentioned before that my job wasn’t exactly thrilling. I washed dishes, sliced bread, mopped floors, and hauled food for 400 diners—day in and day out. The same tasks repeated themselves: meal by meal, day by day, week by week.

And if I’m honest? I was bored.

The Unexpected Joy of Repetition

On the last night of my duties, as I mopped the floor for what felt like the hundredth time, I noticed a young French boy and his father at a nearby table. The boy, Etienne, and his father were throwing dice across the tabletop. Every time the dice bounced, Etienne squealed with joy.

“Do it again, Papa!” he said, over and over. And his father did. Again and again.

That’s when it hit me: I was weary of repetition, but Etienne was thrilled by it. He was fully alive in the moment—delighting in the very monotony I was trying to escape.

Chesterton and the Wonder of Repetition

G.K. Chesterton captures this idea brilliantly in his book Orthodoxy. He writes:

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that he has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.”

What a relief it is to know that God doesn’t get bored with the monotony of creation. Can you imagine if He did?

“Ho, hum. A baby? Just another day’s work. And what’s this? Another life transformed? I’ve seen it all before.”

No—perhaps, as Chesterton writes, God truly delights in the repetition. Perhaps every sunrise, every heartbeat, every transformed life is met with divine joy. As it says in Zephaniah, He ‘will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing’ (Zephaniah 3:17).

Choosing to Delight in the Mundane

On my best days, this reality fuels my heart- a heart that’s prone to boredom with the mundane.

What if we saw the dishes in the sink as a reason to give thanks for food on the table?
What if dirty laundry reminded us we have clothes to wear?
What if tanking up the car made us grateful for reliable transportation?
What if even cleaning the bathroom became a moment to appreciate indoor plumbing?

What if we were strong enough to exult in monotony—and in doing so, flourish in our faith?

One Chapter Closes, Another Begins

This marks the final post on my time in Liberia. Thank you for following along, and for the kind messages many of you have sent my way. I’ve loved sharing these stories with you.

Next week, I’ll be starting a new series—and I can’t wait to tell you more. Stay tuned!