Little Hakims, Growing in Wisdom, Stature, and Favor with God and with Man

The beaming face looked up from its basic morning fare of Islandberry Crunch® and orange juice and announced, “I kissed mommy on the tummy.”

My dear wife has had abdominal discomfort for the last 12 hours or so, and her three year old physician couldn’t have been more delighted to help. Now, I know that you’re thinking that it’s cute, but kissing doesn’t really make anything better, but you couldn’t be more wrong. A kiss from those dear little lips immediately removes half the pain of whatever ails mother, or father, or brother.

In fact, this is one of the lessons that rushed through my mind: this is often how God deals with me in the midst of discomfort. He loves me too much to remove the pain and the benefit to my good and His glory that it brings. But, when I cast my cares upon Him, I find that something akin to a kiss from my Savior has lightened more than half the load, without removing any of the problem.

Then there was the lesson of my daughter’s delight. You see, for her three short years on earth, Kessedi has had to be on the receiving end of mommy’s service, with little to do in return. Whenever she has an opportunity to return in kind some service, some demonstration of affection, some obedience… she seizes the opportunity with joyous alacrity.

Now, however small Kessedi’s service to her mother might have been, our service to God cannot help but be smaller. After all, His complete self-sufficiency corresponds perfectly to our inability to do anything of value in which He is not sustaining us anyway.

When we look at the cross—how the Father gave the Son, and the Son offered Himself up, and the Spirit sustained the Son in His human nature—how the entire Godhead gave itself for us, that the Son might pour out His blood for the propitiation of the wrath that we so completely deserved… when we consider what our Lord has done for us, do we not yearn to return to Him some demonstration of love and gratitude?

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” and “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Considering the cross and responding to it—that is love. But who of us has anything to offer God?

That’s why I’m glad for the law in the way my daughter is glad for mommy’s tummy to hurt. Because it offers me an opportunity to return love to my Savior. If He hadn’t said, “this is what I desire,” I could have nothing to offer; but, when He gives me specific things that I can do to demonstrate love for Him, I must respond with the same joyous alacrity of my three year old daughter…

kissing mommy’s tummy

posted by James  # 8:17 AM 0 Comments Links to this post