Lessons From a One Year Old – Pleasure in God

My son is about 14 months old, but as far as I’m concerned he’s pretty much one year old. I was feeding him a fresh, diced-up peach this morning for breakfast and he loved it! In fact, he kept asking for more as he was stuffing it into his face! At one point, like he often does with food that he likes, he stuffed several pieces into his mouth all at the same time (this was on top of what he was already working on) which resulted in him gagging. Don’t panic! I used my finger to coax a few pieces out of his mouth and told him, “One at a time, buddy.”

This immediately got me thinking. If I have a hold of something good, I want to do just what he did and get as much of it as quickly as possible! Who doesn’t want to continually enjoy the good things in life? It is, however, possible to have too much of a good thing. Too much chocolate can make you sick. Too much sun will give you a sunburn. Even eating good food too fast can lead to choking. This got me to thinking about the greatest pleasure in life.

I would ask you this question: What would satisfy you the most and for the longest period of time, if God didn’t give it to you, He wouldn’t love you.

When Two Lepers Meet

So today I was pondering Luke 17:11-19 … when Jesus cleanses the ten lepers. Only one of them turned back in thankfulness. He shouted and fell at Jesus’ feet overflowing with gratitude that he had been cleansed! Now, he was a Samaritan, and thus the least expected to associate with a Jewish person like Jesus. So his reaction was pretty gutsy! There is a realization that should resound in our hearts as we reflect on this: we, like lepers have been cleansed by Christ; because of this all barriers between us and others are destroyed (though we tend to try and rebuild them). So, a lifestyle of repentance fosters community and magnifies Christ, allowing the Gospel to more richly permeate our lives. More on this later…

A Necessary Reminder

Christ has acted for you

“From beginning to end what Jesus Christ has done for you he has done not only as God but as man. He has acted in your place in the whole range of your human life and activity, including your personal decisions, and your responses to God’s love, and even your acts of faith. He has believed for you, fulfilled your human response to God, even made your personal decision for you, so that he acknowledges you before God as one who has already responded to God in him, who has already believed in God through him, and whose personal decision is already implicated in Christ’s self-offering to the Father, in all of which he has been fully and completely accepted by the Father, so that in Jesus Christ you are already accepted by him. Therefore, renounce yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.”

- TF Torrance

Eye-eye-eye!

So why don’t people make eye contact? I kind of like it, and make it a point to look people in the eye. I thought it was interesting not too long ago I shook a police officer’s hand after being introduced to him, and he looked at the wall!

In the ParentHood

So the baby had a fever last night. We called the doctor (paged through the answering service) and waited two hours for a call back. They said to bring him to the emergency room where we waited 2 hours for them to try and give him Tylenol 3 times the same way, after it didn’t work the first time. After the first failed attempt they said they’d try another method, but they didn’t.

To be honest, I was thoroughly unimpressed with the whole experience… but I guess you can’t expect 5 nurses/doctors to be a pleasant family experience. I’m still working on resting in God’s goodness instead of dwelling on dissatisfaction. God IS good, and He’s protecting my boy… but it’s still hard to see him so sick and unhappy.