Everything I needed to know, I learned from my 3 year old

When I look back at my spiritual journey so far I point toward a few things that REALLY made me come to my home church of Calvary Christian.  There was a sense that at this place I could fully become who I needed to be.  There was a feeling that my family would be protected.  There was an overwhelming feeling as well that I just generally could seek the companionship of anyone there in leadership to entertain my often off-the-wall questions.*  But one thing that comes greatly to mind was that I was hopefully going to become a greater role-model for my little girl.  Up until this point in her life, (2 1/2 yrs), dear old Dad was just a guy that picked her up from school and fed her Wendy’s chicken nuggets.  –Let’s rewind about 30 years and see what my Dad was compared to me;  Greater.  I hear our worship pastor constantly saying to become closer with the Father, we must be lesser, and he must be greater.  That was how it was with my Dad.  He took the brunt of things.  He was a warrior.  He would not let ANYTHING disrupt family balance.  That man, THAT man**…was who I was going to be when i became a father.  Flash forward about 30 years to see a Dad that was involved, but not like he should be.  A lackluster Dad that would love on, kiss, and caress his little girl, but then would go play Farmville on Facebook while she watched re-runs of Dora on tv.   That guy was in need of things.  He was not going to have a little girl with strong family values.  He was NOT going to have a little girl that grew up knowing right from wrong.  Sure, she had watched enough Dora and Diego that she could recite as much Spanish as English for a while, but I digress.–From the first time that I met our staff at Calvary, I felt connected.  My wife felt connected to children’s ministry and that was how we started slowly meeting all of the people that would be spiritually leading our child here both on Sundays, as well as when she would attend school there.  We felt like we, spiritually at least, had a lot riding on this choice of moving our kid to the school.  It had to be right for our little girl.

But that also got me thinking about all the constant parallels between God the Father, and a Father of a child in general.  I know what is best for my little girl.  Trust me, I will know what is best for her when she is 3, 13, 23, 33 and by goodness when I am dying i will STILL know what choices she should be making.  I will no doubt push her.  I will make her feel like I am an adversary because I don’t always let her get her way.  She will have to make hard decisions throughout her lifetime, and she will even run and hide from the decisions that she has to make.  But then again, that is why I will be there for her.  She will be able to safely be cradled in my arms when times get rough.  She can never inflict enough wrong that I would not accept her once again.  She can call on me at any time that there is a need and Dad will always be there for her.  All of these traits exemplify what a good Dad does;  He honors commitments with his children, makes them mind, rewards them for doing what is right, and pushes them to be exactly what they were created to become.

Stop me if ANY of this sounds familiar…

God, the Father, has called us to be right by His laws and commandments.  We are honor our pacts, covenants, with Him.  We are pushed to make hard decisions to follow what is right.  But the glory of it all is that as we follow what we are told, we learn a relationship with Him as well.  This relationship will lead us to not only be ministers of His word, but to praise Him all the way up to and including when we reside within His temple of the gates of the afterlife.   We can never make a big enough mistake that our Father will not still receive us.  When I think of that it grips my heart.  We fall daily, and I even have today.  I have held wrath and been angry.  But I know that by asking my Father for forgiveness that I am a better man.  Just like I was when I was at my Earthly father’s home all those years ago. We will never make a stain on our temple so great that God will not use the blood that was spilled from Christ to cover that sin. 

So, to recap the title of this blog, my child teaches me what God is like daily.  When it is stormy and turbulent outside, she runs to me.  She says that she is scared.  When she is apart from me for even a moment and feels lost, she cries out and runs to me with a timid look.  She feels joy at seeing me when I pick her up from daycare.  She shows me the heart of a child with every smile that she brings to my face.  It is in this way, that I know how God feels about His children here on Earth.  We all run to Him when we are scared.  When our life is turbulent, we turn and cry out to Him.  When we are lost, He embraces us at our reunion.  It is all about that relationship of God and Man.  Servant and Lord.  Father and child.  We need to look at God as our children look at us; with the heart of a child. Matthew 18:3 says:

“And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus is laying the groundwork for us to get access to Heaven in this passage.  It is up to us to figure out how best to interpret what He meant by this, but one thing is certain.  If we just want to learn what we need to do to get into the Kingdom, then we just need to learn how to be more like our kids.  See all of creation through the eyes of our kids. Be all that God created us to be, but also fear Him, and love Him.  So, basically, learn to love God, by seeing how your child loves you.  Sounds easy enough, right?

Thanks, kid.  Daddy loves you!

 

 

*Gordon Smith was the first of many in the wake of my ramblings.  Followed closely by Warren Colebank, and Pastor Brian Walton.  Lastly, Steve Caudill has been on the business end of what all goes on in this head of mine…(Sorry guys).

**Best. Dad. EVER!