“All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.” Isaiah 53:6 NLT
My seven-month-old grandson has found a new form of transportation. His hands and knees. Yes, he is crawling. Not very gracefully, but he is getting the hang of it. No more of Papa on his phone while he safely plays on his blanket with his toys. My eyes and ears are now laser focused and it doesn’t take him long to be in a new zip code in the house.
This stage of childhood opens new opportunities to explore. The baby stage is gone and right before the toddler comes the crawler. For my grandson it was a simple water bottle on the floor that gave him the inspiration. That plastic contraption looked interesting so he made his way to explore his discovery. Of course, we all shouted with excitement when we saw him get on his knees and use his hands to move toward the bottle. We quickly got out phones to capture the moment, knowing well our lives were changing right there and then. Over the past few days, our little mover has graduated to something else in Grammie and Papa’s house. The electric heater that looks like a fireplace. The flickering fake flames tantalizes him and beckons him to touch it.
There are a few rules in Grammie’s house. Ask my first grandchild. She knows them well. As a three-year-old she will help the little guy navigate Grammies house. She is coming in a few days. Good thing for Baby J as she calls him. There are things to touch and play with and things to leave alone. My wife’s idea of child proofing the house is the word “No!” with the occasional persuasion tactic to see it her way. It worked with our kids, so I trust her.
Since our heater in the living room looks like a fire, but harmless to touch, we thought it best to teach him not to touch it. After all, we do not want him putting his hands in something that looks like a flame because one day it could be. The first time we saw him head to the fantastic fake display of heat, we called out his name and said, “No!” Step number one in the Grammie household. What do you think he did? Well at first absolutely nothing. He kept crawling, ignoring us as if we never said a thing. Noticing this we looked at each other to see who was going to get off the couch and redirect him with a gentle reminder of the rules. We did this dance with him for a bit, back and forth and then he was off to something else. It was cute. But there was one time that caught my attention when it was just he and I in the living room that inspired this devotion.
As he made his way to his flickering friend, I spoke his name and said no. He stopped, looked at me and gave me the biggest, warmest, melt your heart smile and then… turned to go and touch the heater. As he got closer, I spoke his name again with a little more volume. He stopped, looked at me and smiled again. He then looked at the heater to see how close he was. I could see him thinking to himself, “Am I close enough to touch it?” It was too much. He had to touch and so he turned again to get closer. We did this exercise three or four times without him touching the heater. I finally picked him up and sat him on my lap and we had a little chat. He had no idea what I was saying as he smiled and giggled as he sat on my lap. But this is where it begins. There will be a day he will hear his mom, his dad, his Grammie and understand what they are saying and why. For now, it was the beginning of the discipline. The explaining of the why and what can happen when you disobey.
I shared with him that one day there will be things that can hurt him and when I see that, it is my responsibility to warn him. My “No” is more than spoiling his fun. It is providing the safe place for him to grow. I think some of you already know where I am going with this. You are remembering when you made the beeline for the heater of life, and God said no. Some of us obeyed. Some of us didn’t. We heard God’s voice. We read His Word. We turned and looked to Him. We thought about it and then turned away and kept going. We heard Him again. We stopped. We pondered. We touched and we disobeyed. For some of us, it hurt bad. Maybe even still dealing with consequences. We knew better, but the “flickering fake flame” was too much. Our guilt maybe has caused us to think God is mad at us, given up on us and we feel the sting of shame. When we feel this way, I think we miss one of the best places to be. God’s lap.
How many times has God picked me up, sat me on His lap to explain the rules? So many times. The rules are for my good, because He loves me and wants the best for me. I think this is the God we need to understand and embrace. He is a parent, a heavenly Father. Scripture says that if we as earthly and at times evil parents know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Heavenly Father give us. He created us and sent His Son to die for us, for our sin so we can be with Him. He knows what happens when we learn how to crawl, walk and run. He gets it. We will wander or worse run to the flames. We all do. But the key is to stay close to His voice. Hear it, obey it and receive His love, His forgiveness, His grace when we don’t.
It is my hope that my grandson will take these early moments of discipline and learn from them. Again, he has no idea what I am saying other then it is important. I expect him to fail at times. Grammie will be reminding him of what not to touch. His cousin will cover for him. Mom and dad will be busy following him around. His dog Gideon is going to love his newfound mobility. He will wander. So will we. May we hear God’s voice, smile and come back to the path He has chosen for us when we do.
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