i’m pretty much convinced (せっとくされています) that our son Augustus is an unequivocal and prime example of how we should be with the Lord. Don’t write me off just yet. i know it sounds cliche’; and yes, i’ve even preached this before, but today with fresh eyes (eyes full of freshness?) i realized (real-eye-zed, heh) yet again how we are called to be like little children in our walk with Jesus.
So what amazing thing is it that Augustus Bramwell Cathcart does, to make me unbiasedly think that he is allegorically the [throw in one more large word that makes me sound smart] picture-perfect Christian? It’s what he does first thing every morning.
As soon as this little two-and-a-half-year-old curly blond head wakes up (earlier every day it seems), he goes on the hunt—for me. The curls bobble down the dark, chilly hall, through the sliding paper doors, into our room and to the foot of our bed. He’s aiming to get into my arms. He makes it. He lets me hug him and hold him and waits for me while i stumble around the kitchen looking for the @!#% coffee, while i’m wondering “why does morning always have to come in the morning? i’d be much more ready for it in the afternoon.” After the coffee works its way into my bloodstream and i become less like an ogre, i ask him how he slept and he tells me, and returns the question along with a few others and sits on my lap or plays at my feet for a good half hour. He loves every moment. Then, he says it. Those powerful words that i wish i could really grasp —
“Da’ee, what shall we do today?”
Man. What else can you say?
Of course in this comparison, i don’t make a very good picture of God. Oh if we as parents could be more like our Heavenly Father as we raise our children! But i think Augustus nails it in his role as of the child of God. Waking up, searching for and running to His Presence, and then those words of total dependence— “What shall we do today?”
It’s funny (but not really) how we as Americans are typically trying to engrain into our children the very thing that God is trying to work out of us. Independence. i try more often than i care to admit to get Augustus to do things on his own, like play with some cheap toys while i do something “important”… When all he really wants to do is whatever i’m doing with me! We could be like that with the Lord, and imagine what stories we’d have if we just followed Him around all day!
I’ve been wondering lately about pleasing the Lord, knowing His Will, and the slue of other questions that go along wanting to be successful, but aren’t they all answered in one place? The meeting with the Lord and the surrender of my day, my plans, my life is found in that wonderful question. “What shall we do today?”
The question, for one thing, insists upon being with the Father. There is no “we” if i’m on my own. It also demands for Him to have the plan, not me. I’m just along for the ride, along for the life-lessons, along to obey, along to fellowship with my Father and see what kind of adventures He’s bringing me on today.
It’s all about complete dependence on Him isn’t it?
Yes. It is.
