A Lesson in God’s Fatherhood
April 30, 2008
Joe,
Here’s a picture of my lovely daughter, Halle, at 9 months old. The other day God used her to remind me of a valuable lesson about Himself, so I just couldn’t resist posting a picture of her to share the story (though this story has nothing to do with a pink ball!)
Recently Halle has learned to stand up in her crib…only problem is that she has not yet learned how to get herself back down! So what this has meant is that several times over the last few days, Halle has been enjoying a nice nap, when all of a sudden we hear some very loud screaming coming from her nursery. As she wakes up, she starts playing and gets herself standing up, balancing herself on the bar of the crib. But because she doesn’t know how to get down, she just stands there screaming for help. This is especially frustrating when she is supposed to be sleeping!
So we know that if we really want to care for Halle, we need to help her learn how to get herself down from this standing position. The other night we took her into her room and stood her up in the crib. At first she enjoyed herself, but as a few minutes went by it was clear that she wanted to be done. But she couldn’t get herself down! She timidly tried to get down, with no success. She kept looking at us with this awful look of helplessness like, ‘What are you doing? Why won’t you help me?!’ We just watched her and tried to encourage her that she could get down on her own. Then she began screaming like we were the world’s worst parents.
Finally after a bit longer we gave her some help and she got down. But as I thought about this, I couldn’t help but think that I had just received a glimpse of what we must look like to God sometimes. We are faced with some trying situation and we cry out, ‘Help me, God!’ When we don’t see immediate help, we can easily get angry or depressed, thinking that God does not care for us. Yet like 9 month-old Halle, we do not always know what we need. It was in her best interests that we help her to learn how to get down in her crib. Though it caused her some tears, we watched her struggle and did not intervene because we loved her.
So it is with the Lord, isn’t it? He brings trials of various kinds into our lives (James 1:2-4), but in all of them He has loving purposes. He is working to refine our faith, to bring us to completion, to make us mature. The next time I’m experiencing some hardship where God seems to be ignoring me, I hope I’ll have the strength to recall the other night with our daughter. The tears we allowed her to endure were a demonstration of our love for her, though she couldn’t understand it. And the sorrows of this life are likewise acts of God’s love, a love so deep that He would enter into this world in the person of His Son and experience with us our sorrows, bearing all of them on the Cross.
May God grant us all grace to suffer with hope,
Larry
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Great post Lar. It is wonderful being a Dad. So many glimpses into the love and wisdom of the Father. I’ll catch you tomorrow.
Joe
Larry,
Excellent post! Thank you for encouraging me to see the Father in my own feeble attempts to be a father.
-Gino
Glad you guys enjoyed this one. Please hold me accountable to walk through the trials that I will surely face in light of what I’ve written here.
Larry
Larry,
Without my wife and children, I’d don’t think I’d even be aware of half of my sinfulness. God, in his infinite wisdom, gave me the wife I have and the children I have for a reason. Thank you for encouraging me to see truth in the day-to-day events of fatherhood.
Will