A Child's Reminder

Preschoolers have always been one of my favorite ages.  Their wide-eyed innocence and enjoyment of each moment is refreshing for those of us who have been around for a while longer.  And my recent stay with my grandchildren didn’t disappoint.

One thing that was different this time was that they had reached the age that allowed me to dig out some of my old ideas from my preschool-teaching days, and they were ready to have fun learning with Grandma.  Of course, letters and numbers and colors and shapes were on the agenda, as well as a special craft; but being able to also reinforce their parents’ teaching about God was a special privilege.

Never underestimate God’s sovereignty in even the little things and the power of his Word for even the youngest child!  I came equipped with one Bible verse to teach and one object lesson to reinforce it – randomly selected before I left home from a very old preschool resource: “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid” (Hebrews 13:6).  I had no idea that my grandson had been experiencing times of fear and imaginary but very real fearful thoughts/images.  But God knew!

While the verse was less effective at this time with my granddaughter, Jacob found out that God’s Word had an answer to his present fears.  His parents were able to continue to use the verse (which he instantly memorized) to remind him of God’s presence and love for him.  At the tender age of four, he has begun to learn that God’s Word is true and that God cares about every part of his life.

Hebrews 4:12 tells us that God’s Word is living and active, and I have seen that truth so many times in my walk with God.  Sometimes we need his Word to convict or correct us, sometimes to teach or train us, and sometimes to reassure or comfort us.  Second Timothy 3:16-17 reminds us that the Bible is God’s very breath and is useful for all of these purposes.  But we adults sometimes need to learn something from children. 

Jacob never asked me the kind of questions adults ask about God.  He didn’t analyze the memory verse and didn’t seem to wonder HOW God was his helper – he just believed what it said and knew he didn’t need to be afraid anymore.   If only we could approach God and his Word with the same innocence as preschoolers – able to easily trust and see God in the small things.  Thank you, grandson, for reminding me to take God at his Word.  He can always be fully trusted!

The Ants Go Marching

  

We can learn a lot from ants.  This past week, I got the opportunity to learn up close and personal as the warm weather brought a few of them up from under our house and into our living room (exterminator will be here tomorrow!)!  We haven’t figured out what the draw was since there wasn’t any loose food or other ant-friendly things in that room, but at least one tiny ant chose to breach the barrier we all had agreed upon and find its way under a random part of our floor molding.  What happened next is where the teaching and learning took place.

With very few stray exceptions (less than I could count on one hand), the first ant led a literal parade of ants in single-file over to the edge of our room-size rectangular area rug.  It then turned left to follow the edge of the rug its entire length, then right at the corner to continue following the edge of the rug.  I caught up with the string of ants before they reached another corner, but I’m sure they would have kept turning right at the next two corners until they made it back to where they started.  Not one ant went either over or under the rug – they did not deviate from their marching orders!

I couldn’t help but see the spiritual connection.  How many times do people blindly follow the leader of some sin or other evil in our culture without questioning anything?  Even as Christians, we often assume that whatever everyone else is doing is something that is worth doing or important for us to do.  We may not follow the worst choices in our culture, but we seem to easily follow those within our “Christian” circle without fully examining everything and looking to God’s Word for our direction.

Conversely, I also thought about how hard it seems to be for us sometimes to follow God without questioning.  We want him to explain everything to us or show us the full picture before we will simply trust him with childlike (or ant-like) faith.  We like to apply our reasoning skills and logic to our walk with God, which almost always has disastrous results.  The whole point of faith is venturing into the unknown and trusting the Leader – not having everything figured out before we step out in faith.

What do you need to learn from the ant?  Do you need to trust God your leader more and be willing to step out in faith in some area where you’ve been afraid in the past?  Or do you need to stop following the wrong leaders and make better choices?  Or maybe, like most of us, it’s a combination of both.  The next time you see an ant, think about what God might want you to learn from these tiny creatures.  If you’re like me, God is always teaching something new just when we need it most.