Category Archives: Children

Journeying Mercy

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Traveling with young children isn’t for the faint of heart. Parents have to plan ahead as much for a road trip with little ones as for the vacation destination itself, and that includes providing something for them to do hour after hour. We might call this journeying mercy, because fussy children can make for miserable miles.

Nate and I took our kids on countless road trips, all crammed into a station wagon. I recall one memorable journey during which we had the back seats folded flat, suitcases spread evenly like giant bricks that raised the floor, and children lying atop the luggage like sausages lined up in a fry pan. It was the only way to fit everyone in. Nowadays we’d be stopped and our children would be taken away as wards of the state.

But we always looked at the road trip as part of the vacation, even if it was 1500 miles long.

That is, unless we had a baby on board.

I remember one trip in particular when one of our toddlers tried to literally chew her way through her car-seat strap in an effort to set herself free, screaming between every chew.

I also recall being desperate to stop one of our 3 month olds from crying, buying her a Dairy Queen cone and feeding it to her in tiny bites, her first food other than breast milk. It worked beautifully, at least for a few miles.

Tonight Linnea, Adam, and their 3 little ones arrived in our driveway after two days on the road, just in time for a pot roast dinner. They were grateful to end their long journey, because little Autumn, 9 months old, had been a traveling challenge all the way. Skylar and Micah, ages 4 and 2, had a general understanding that Grandma Midgee’s house was far, far away and it would take many hours to get there.

But Autumn? She couldn’t understand and lost patience in a hurry, letting everyone know she wasn’t happy with the length of the trip.

She acted much like I sometimes do when traveling with the Lord through days and weeks of time. If I don’t know how much longer the project or trial will last, I cry out to him in a mix of frustration and irritation. “Are we there yet?”

When he says no, it’s, “Waaa! How much longer do I have to endure this!”

But as Adam drove across the country from Florida to Michigan, he had his mind on a clear destination, and each mile brought his family closer to the goal. God has a clear destination in mind for me, too, even though I might not know what it is on any given day. It pleases him if I stop whining and accept the peace he offers as we move along. When I remain calm, trusting he’ll eventually put me down in a place that’s good, he’ll provide journeying mercy, all along the way.

“A person’s steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand their own way?” (Proverbs 20:24)

Partial Answers

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Tonight after dinner Hans shared an interesting conversation he’d had earlier in the day with his eldest son, Nicholas. While walking home from the local playground, Nicholas had said, “When we die and I grow up again, will we be the same?”

In the mind of a 3 year old, this was a simple question. In Hans’ 30 year old mind, an accurate answer would have been lengthy and laced with scriptural detail far too advanced for such a young chap.

So he did what wise parents do. He simplified his answer and said, “Yes. You’ll still be Nicholas, and I’ll still be Papa.”

Is this how God responds to our questions to him? Logic tells us that when we ask, he has to simplify. After all, he’s above and beyond us in all respects. He knows more, can see farther, understands better, and is the unstoppable force behind all events. He’s a complicated Being!

But there’s more to it than just simplification. Certain of our questions have answers too heavy for us to handle, much like Nicholas wasn’t ready for the full story of heavenly existence. No doubt the “why” questions we voice to God are among those with answers we’re unable to take in. If God gave us the long version, either we wouldn’t believe it or the truth would overwhelm us.

Little Nicholas didn’t need any more detail than Hans gave him. What he did need was a dose of security from his father, because behind his question was a hint of nervousness about not being able to tell who-was-who when he got to heaven. And if he got there and couldn’t find his daddy, that would be a loss too great to bear.

As we adults question God and get frustrated with his simplified or limited answers, we should remember that all we really need from him is a dose of security. We think we want the details behind our “why’s” or other questions, but deep down it’s an affirmation of God’s sovereignty that we’re really craving.

Although he may keep the long answers to himself, he never skimps on letting us know there’s nothing to worry about. Whatever the situation, he reminds us, “I’ve got it well in hand.” It was good enough for Nicholas to know he has nothing to fear about heaven, and it should be good enough for us to believe the same thing about all that concerns us, whether in the afterlife or in the present day.

We’re often discontent with God’s partial answers but should take note of how quickly satisfied Nicholas became with his father’s short answer. That trusting response might be the very reason God says little children sometimes “get it” better than learned adults. We could all take a lesson.

Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” (Matthew 11:25)

A Unique Teaching Method

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Christmas is 20 days away, coaxing us to think again about the baby of Bethlehem. How did the Trinity decide together on such an outlandish scheme to bring salvation to mankind? Divinity reduced to a newborn? And even more incredible, reduced to a single cell within the human body of a regular woman?

But that became the plan for one important reason: Jesus wanted to do everything we did, to be tempted like us, struggle like us, feel like us, and live with our limitations. Amazingly, he wanted to be just like us.

But why?

One reason was to teach us what a well-lived human life should look like. Another, and of course the most important reason, was to save our souls, a rationale we still can’t understand but enormously appreciate.

I love thinking about Jesus as an infant, then a toddler and a little child. Surely he had an ordinary childhood relationship with his mother, and she did for him all the things we moms did/do for our children. Then as he grew, he lived a model life in front of relatives, friends, and neighbors. Through Scripture’s pages, he became our model, too.

But when did his teaching begin? Was it at age 30 at the start of his ministry? Or well before that? Is it possible his choice to become a born-baby was meant to teach us something, too?

My mom loved kids, preferring their company to that of adults. I think one of the reasons was her ongoing expectation that they could teach her something, even the newborns. She watched them closely, sometimes talking to them as if they were the Lord’s emissaries of wisdom.

“Tell me about God,” she’d say, focusing on the squinty eyes of a newborn who was still a year away from answering with words. But words or not, Mom expected to learn. And she absolutely loved the idea that our Savior was born a baby “in the usual way.” He didn’t arrive to save us dressed in the armor of a warrior. He didn’t inherit a throne through royalty. He didn’t conquer with guns or swords. Instead he entered the scene unremarkably… just by being born.

Mom used to tell us, “When you recite John 3:16, think about the word ‘begotten.’ God gave us his ‘only begotten Son.’ It means ‘born of parents,’ and Jesus was born just like you, helpless, dependent, needy.”

In the ordinariness of his infancy, she wanted us to learn something. She hoped we’d see that our Savior was approachable in his humanity rather than intimidating in his divinity. Years later we would learn the difference between him and us, of his sinlessness and our sin. But as children, she wanted us to relate to, and learn from, our common infancies.

Because Jesus willingly came in that humble way, we love him all the more.

“God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)