When a Child Speaks

 

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Your glory is higher than the heavens.  You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.  Psalm 8:1-2

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge!  How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!  For who can know the Lord’s thoughts?  Who knows enough to give him advice?  And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back?  For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory.  All glory to him forever!  Amen.  Romans 11:33-36

When a child speaks, it pays to listen.  It was a lot of years ago on a Sunday.  I had just preached to a full church on a perfectly beautiful Sunday.  Everything had gone right, and I felt rather after-glowish, basking in (and embarrassed by) all the wonderful compliments as the congregation departed.  A family of six, who were new members in our church filed out, with Jamie, a precious six-year old with pigtails, bringing up the rear.  This little one had not mastered pronouncing some of her words and sounds; Her “r’s” always came out as “w’s” – road was woad, and phrases like really red became weally wed.  Sometimes the “p’s” came out as “c’s”.  She was adorable and always had a big smile that was engaging.  As Jamie passed me, she grinned, clutching her stuffed tiger.  I bent down, took her chin in my hand, and said, I’m really glad you were here today, Jamie.  My little friend looked up at her pastor, took my chin in her chubby little hands, and replied, And I’m weally glad YOU were heah, creature! 

Creature?  I was speechless.  And then it dawned on me; Jamie was the picture the Psalmist had in mind.  With one mispronounced word she had connected my ground wire.  All those high-flying compliments of the congregation had to have a way out of my head so I could think clearly about how I didn’t know nearly as much as I thought I did. 

Score one for a humility lesson in one word or less, by a six-year-old!

The Apostle Paul snapped that into perspective in today’s reading from Romans.  God’s thoughts and ways; who is in that league?  Who can compete with Heaven’s wisdom?  Nobody reading (or writing) these pages.

For You Today

The next time you’re in the presence of one of God’s little messengers, stop thinking about the shopping list, or the chores you’ve left undone.  Listen closely; you could be on the verge of hearing some weally good stuff.  Wight?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title image Pixabay.com ∞  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on Psalm 8, see: Wondering About the Big Stuff  Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3

 

Circle of Life

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Thursday, August 1, 2019

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge!  How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!  For who can know the Lord’s thoughts?  Who knows enough to give him advice?  And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back?  For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory.  All glory to him forever! Amen.  Romans 11:33-36

With all due humility and respect to the popularity of Walt Disney, Tim Rice, and Elton John’s Circle of Life song in the movie, Lion King, what they give us is merely wisdom from the underside of things here on earth; they don’t begin to scratch the surface of the circle’s source.  The real circle of life begins and comes round to Heaven.

The apostle Paul rarely stuttered like Moses.  When the little, ugly student of Gamaliel, (Paul may have been a slow learner, but he turned-out to be quite a scholar) wrote his letter to the Roman Christians, his small, twisted stature, poor eyesight, and thorny side faded into the background as he gave us an eternal glimpse into our beginning and ending.  Bowing to the omniscient wisdom of JHWH, Creator of all, the apostle unfolds the simplest, most profound truth about the circle of life:  it begins with God, continues to exist because of God’s will and power, and does not simply repeat until it destroys itself…but returns unto God bringing glory, honor, and unending praise to its Maker – quite a circle!

In the movie the little lion cub, Simba, is destined to be the king after his father, Mufasa passes from the scene[2].  Dad teaches the young prince that, while they chase the gazelle and eat them, eventually lions also die, return to the soil to become the grass, which the gazelle eat.  That is Mufasa’s circle of life, sometimes you’re the windshield; sometimes you’re the bug!

But God has a much higher plan than live – deteriorate – die – rot in the ground to become fertilizer for the savannah grass, and be re-born as a well-fed antelope (only to be eaten by the next generation of lions).  With that existential philosophy (even less appealing than Akuna-matata), you’ve got nothing more to look forward to than the African proverb that whimpers:

Every morning a gazelle awakens to the reality that he must outrun the fastest lion or be eaten today, while every lion awakens to the reality that he must outrun the slowest gazelle or starve today.  Either way the dawn brings running.

And that’s the whole difference between philosophy and theology; with man’s philosophizing circle all you get is running, and someday being outrun. 

When it’s theology – God thought – it’s about living; we are created by Him, and we live for, and in His good and glory, and eventually go to Him, the giver, sustainer, and purpose of all life.  That’s a circle you can live with!

For You Today

You were created with a higher purpose than retirement to become gazelle food.  With a Creator and Savior like that, what’s not to love? 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com        Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] Image:  By Абдырашит Сатылганов - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0