Little Life Lesson #3

Today was a beautiful, sunshiney day. I had to go to work, but Jace had a date with Grandma Linda! Grandma Linda dates are always so fun...last time it was a ferry ride and playing with a puppy. Today was a fun day at the beach.

As I was loading up the car this morning, Jace was playing with a deflated ball in the driveway. When it was time to put him in his carseat he started crying and saying over and over again "ball please? ball please?" The kid wanted to stay in the driveway and play with a deflated ball. But I had better plans! I saw and knew his not so distant future was going to be filled with a Grandma Linda date, and she does NOT disappoint! He was going to get to go to the beach and play in the sand and chase birds and run in the grass and watch the waves roll and even see some ducklings. Jace didn't know that. All he knew was what was right in front of him. He doesn't have the capacity and understanding to know what is in his future. But, his mama does. His mama knew there was so much more. But, the only way to give him more was to take him away from the ball and the driveway, while he cried and pleaded to stay.

How often do I do this with God?  I don't have the capacity and understanding to know what's in my future, but He does! Countless times, He has had to pry me away from what seemed to me like the best thing. But, He has always shown me He has so. much. more. Even if it means I have to leave something behind with lots of tears and pleading.

He wants me to walk away from the deflated ball in the driveway. Not because He is mean, but, because He wants to give me something better--a sunny day at the beach.

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” --C.S. Lewis

The Boston Marathon: Worthy of Celebration

(Picture source)

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of "disaster," I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world." --Mr. Rogers

I read up on the history of the Boston Marathon so I could get a better understanding of the weight of all this.  What I learned was--this race is a place of celebration. The qualifying standards for people to even be able to participate in it are very high--an accomplishment worthy of celebration. It has become an international event, bringing people together from all over the world to participate in the universal gift of running--a gathering worthy of celebration. The event has a tradition of including a wheelchair division, a blind/visually impaired division, and a mobility impaired program-- a tradition worthy of celebration. 

So, as the stories unfolded and we found out about the carnage done in this beautiful piece of humanity, my stomach got weak, my heart sank, and my mind raced as I grieved for the world that my children will grow up in. That there are evil people, willing to do heinous things on precious soil.

But, at some point during the day, I looked a little closer. I looked at the first responders, thought of those on the ground who ran towards the chaos with little time to worry about themselves. The police officers and firefighters, the doctors and nurses at the hospitals, the strangers helping strangers on the streets and in the crowds.

When you leaned in quietly and looked close, a place of chaos was dazzling with beauty.

There is still good.

And that good--that good,

 is worthy of celebration.

Our Original Nature

The other night we rented Skyfall, that James Bond movie. We started it pretty late and I won the argument of where we should watch it. Owen wanted the downstairs flat screen, I insisted the laptop in bed (because I knew I would fall asleep and didn't want to have to move when it was over. But, don't tell him that because he always checks if I'm awake and I always pretend I am). Anyhow, asleep I fell.

I saw the opening scene and thought it was so ridiculous that he lived, with no explanation as to how, so I boycotted by falling asleep faster than usual. I randomly woke up at ONE part, in the whole movie. So, really, I'm sure it was a great movie, but I missed it. The one part I saw was some guy, don't know who he was or what he was talking about, but I'm going to share what he said. Only because I can't stop thinking about it. If you hate rats, the thought of it will probably gross you out. 'Infested with rats' is like the most grotesque visualization in the history of visualizations. But, bear with me. I think I have a point. Maybe. I'm writing it out to see if I do. So here's what this guy interrupted my deep sleep with.

"My grandmother had an island when I was a boy. Nothing to boast of. You could walk along it in an hour. But still, it was - it was a paradise for us. One summer, we came for a visit and discovered the whole place had been infested with rats. They'd come on a fishing boat and had gorged themselves on coconut. So how do you get rats off an island, hmm? My grandmother showed me. We buried an oil drum, and hinged the lid. Then we wired coconut to the lid as bait. The rats come for the coconut. They fall into the drum, and after a month, you've trapped all the rats. But what did you do then? Throw the drum into the ocean? Burn it? No. You just leave it. And they begin to get hungry, then one by one they start eating each other, until there are only two left. The two survivors. And then what - do you kill them? No. You take them, and release them into the trees. Only now, they don't eat coconut anymore. Now they will only eat rat. You have changed their nature." -- (Source)

Ok, so yes. Gross.

But it got me thinking. They weren't created to be cannibals. They liked coconuts! But, the options the world gave them changed their nature. 

In the first chapter of the Bible, God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature...God created human beings; He created them godlike, reflecting God's nature," (Genesis 1:26-28, The Message).

From the moment our little lips take their first sip of oxygen, we are reflecting the nature of God. But, the world will try to strip that from us. Yes, I believe we were born with original sin, but we were also designed to be like Him! I mean, the list could never be numbered, but the Bible tells us some of His charactersitcs. To name a few: He is holy, He is just, He is merciful, He is faithful, He is truth, He is love.

A friend of mine who I haven't seen in a while, met Jace the other day when he was being babysat, so I wasn't there. The friend messaged me afterwards saying she loved meeting him and said 'he has so many similar facial expressions as you do!' He does? I didn't know! But, I LOVED hearing that. He is my boy. He is reflecting my characteristics.

Just like us. And our Father.We were created to reflect His image. And parts of His image are those things I mentioned: holy, just, merciful, faithful, truthful, loving.

It's part of our nature, only because He is part of our nature. The options the world tries to bombard us with often will make us stray from that. To look out for ourselves and be mean and arrogant and hateful and spiteful and liars and thieves and gossipers and unfaithful and unjust and unmerciful and untruthful and unloving.

If we aren't careful and let ourselves feed into the options the world gives us instead of spending our days reflecting the nature of our Creator and what He originally designed us to be, then we will become just like the rats. We will have a new natural.

The problem with the rats was that once they were so far removed from the coconuts, they didn't even recognize them as a viable means to survival anymore. It just wasn't even an option because it wasn't familiar.

I don't want to walk so far into the world that I don't even recognize who God originally created me to be. I want His nature to always be familiar.