As a soon-to-be daddy, I find myself learning a lot of lessons not only from other parents but also from the time I spend interacting with and looking after their kids. I’ve figured that if one day I shall have my own kids, I best get busy learning what I can from others’ so I’m better prepared. But I’ve also learned a few lessons about the Lord and how He deals with us, His children. These lessons not only will help me become a better father, but will also help me become a better person as I get to know and understand my Heavenly Father as well. The following is the first of many examples!
A few nights ago, Mel and I had the fun and slightly exhausting pleasure of babysitting the three kids of two of our close friends, Niki and Kelly. They have a seven-year-old girl, a five-year-old boy, and a two-year-old boy. They are awesome, fun, energetic, well-behaved-yet-wild, and everything you’d want your kids to be (or at least everything I want my future kids to be, hah hah!). We spent the evening having a pizza dinner (yes, we feed your kids junk food if we babysit them), pumping them full of chocolate, and watching their favourite movies. We snuggled up on the couch and watched An American Tale: Fievel Goes West, which is an oldie but a goodie that I haven’t seen in literally twenty years. The older kids cuddled up to me and Mel (their favourite babysitters since we always bring them chocolate) whilst the two-year-old clambered all over us noisily yet adorably. Alas, after the movies were done and the chocolate consumed, it ended up being tome for bed – which is when the universe literally started to end…at least according to the oldest!
It started with her not having any sheets on her bed. They were still in the wash, so she pulled them out of the spinning washing machine and tried to put them on her bed. No, we said, you can’t do that since they need to finish washing and then be dried. We found a sleeping bag for her and made her get in it. Crying ensued, crying that turned into sobbing and wailing. Then she discovered that her blankie was missing – the pink one with flowers. “It’s gooooooone!!! I can’t sleep withoooooouuuuut it!!!!!” she wailed in between sobs. At that point I was putting down her younger brother who went to bed without any trouble at all. I came in to say goodnight to her but the sobbing and calamitous wailing continued. I was partly annoyed but also very desperate to fix the problem and rescue her from such disconsolation. But since there seemed little I could do, I said goodnight, hugged her, and left her alone to calm down and go to sleep. A few minutes later, Mel and I found her blankie downstairs and I took it to her, which saved her universe from entering “the big crunch.”
Once Mel and I gathered our wits, it occurred to me that I probably felt a little like how the Lord must feel when we think our universe is literally ending. To some of you, this may sound like weird theology, so do let me explain. We as human beings each have our own universe. Our universe is filled with our wants and needs, the people we love, loathe, or just put up with. We have the things we have set before us, but most of all, each one of us has our very own “blankie.” Our “blankie” could be our new job, our new car, our spouse, our kids, our friends, or an activity we enjoy. Whatever it is, it is something we cling to that comforts us and gets us “through the night.” When this thing is taken away, or we think it’s gone and we can’t find it, we panic. “It’s goooooooone!” we wail. But what we don’t realize is that it may in fact not be gone for good or lost, or it may in fact be gone for a very good reason. Or maybe the Lord wants us to do without it for a while or focus on something more important. We sit in our beds and cry as if the world is about to end, but the Lord stands above us knowing full well what’s going on and that we will in fact be all right in the morning. The Lord loves us, just like I love my “niece and nephews” (which is what I call Niki and Kelly’s kids since we’re practically family). And just like I desperately wanted to fix my “niece’s” problem but knew in the end that my little “niece” would be fine without it, the Lord knows what’s best for us and that if we trust Him, we will indeed be fine in the morning even if our favourite blankie has been lost or taken away.
So, my thanks goes out to my lovely little “niece” who not only gave me and Mel a fun evening of pizza-devouring, chocolate-inhaling, and movie-watching, but who also – completely inadvertently – taught me a wonderful little lesson about God’s Fatherhood of us, His children, and what He has for us.
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