Don’t forget.

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Yesterday Louisa and Birgitta were in reminiscing mode, harkening back to childhood and a certain Disney video they both remembered well. Since it had to do with Christmas, they decided to hunt for it in the basement, hoping to watch it.

They found it among the old VHS tapes: “A Walt Disney Christmas,” 6 classic cartoons from the 1930’s and 1940’s. I watched the girls as they watched the tape, enjoying their expressions and comments:

“Oh, I remember that skating couple when the ice cracked! Remember the poor children at the orphanage? And the stocking with the hole in it?”

As their favorite scenes appeared, they tried to recall how old they were when they’d memorized the details: the color of the ice, the lace on the pantaloons, the glow of a Christmas tree. All of it occurred for them more than half a lifetime ago.

Looking back at happy times is fun. It can also be instructive, and God wants us to make a practice of it. In the Old Testament he says, “Remember what the Lord did to Pharaoh and to Egypt. Remember how the Lord led you in the wilderness. Remember that the Lord redeemed you. Remember the days of old. Remember all the wonders he has done. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome. Remember the Lord’s great mercy and love.”

On and on his training-in-remembering goes as he coaxes us to look back. If he did great things for us “then,” he can do the great things “now.” His desire is for us to focus on his past capabilities rather than our circumstantial difficulties. When things aren’t going well, we tend to quickly slip into despair rather than count on him to come through, and reminding us of past victories is his way of lifting our sagging spirits.

Even better than our look back, though, is his: he never needs remembrance-prompting because he never forgets. When he makes a promise, he follows through. What he says he’ll do, he always does, without exception. God has never been into making excuses. Scripture says he “remembers his covenant, remembers us and blesses us, remembers us in our low estate” and many more. On and on his mindfulness goes, mindfulness of us.

If we were as mindful of him, our lives would be far less stressful and less cluttered with worry. Trusting God would be easier, and our faith in him would grow by leaps and bounds.

“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.” (Isaiah 46:9)

It’s easy!

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One of the reasons children are so likable is their frankness. They say what they’re thinking without filtering it first and are blunt in their comments. This morning Skylar, Micah and I were “working” in the basement on 3 separate “projects” when Skylar asked if she could draw on the white board.

“Sure,” I said, reaching for the pail of special markers. “Why don’t you draw your family,” I said, heading back to my project. As Skylar drew, she sang original little ditties about mommy, daddy, Micah and herself. When she drew a self-portrait, she added stripes above her head with a pink splotch beneath them.

Glancing over from my task I said, “What are those lines?”

“It’s raining on me,” she said, “and that’s my umbrella,” pointing to the pink item.

I complimented her on her artwork, then went back to what I was doing. When she said, “Now I’ll draw God,” I couldn’t resist taking another peek. First she made a big, round head, adding a yellow blob on top.

“What’s that yellow thing?” I said.

“A crown.”

“Oh, I thought it might be an umbrella,” I said, since the thing she drew over her own head looked much like the one over God’s.

But she had a ready answer. Laughing, she said, “Oh, it never rains on God, silly Midgee.”

She drew a wide smile on the face. “God is always happy,” she said. Then pausing, she added, “…unless Micah does bad things.”

And so goes the theology of a 3 year old, a theology God loves and accepts. She had all her facts right:

  • God is the ruler over everything.
  • Nothing bad happens to God, since he’s in charge.
  • God is always happy, except when people do bad things.

And that was Skylar’s concise, concrete, accurate synopsis of who God is. Easy to understand, easy to accept. No wonder God tells us to think like children.

We adults tend to complicate him, adding our own ideas to the little we really know. Much of who he is can’t be bent to comply with logic, so we weave a web of probabilities around him, humanizing him into something he’s not.

Our motive is good: we want to know him better. But the results stray from reality. And that’s the fascinating thing about children. They take what they’ve been told about God, accept it as truth, and have no urge to debunk it, debate it, degrade it or embellish it.

And although I would never attempt to sketch God, for Skylar it was easy.

“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.” (1 Chronicles 29:11)

Passion Gone Wrong

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My grandson Micah Nathan is obsessed with wheels. I remember our 4 boys feeling the same way, flattening themselves to the floor to get a road’s eye view of tiny toy wheels. Maybe it’s in boy-DNA.

Micah has strong opinions about each miniature vehicle at my house, even at only 22 months. His favorite is a tiny bike-like motorcycle, followed by a plastic dump truck. He assigns different cars to different people. “This is Mommy’s car. This is Daddy’s.”

But yesterday we saw that even a toddler can take things too far. Linni and I were chatting when Micah approached with a tiny wheel in his pudgy hand, which must have come off one of the small cars. With his limited language he tried to share his thoughts, but before we could figure them out, he popped the wheel into his mouth, gave a few chews, and swallowed it.

Wheels are Micah’s passion.

All of us are passionate about something and are usually willing to sacrifice something else to pursue it. For example, I’d rather write than sleep or eat. Someone else might be passionate about music or cooking or reading or any other worthwhile pursuit. It’s all based on what bents and abilities we have and on the way God wires us.

But in thinking about our passions, we might ask ourselves several questions:

  • How far am I willing to go for the sake of my passion?
  • Is every passion worth pursuing?
  • What if my passion isn’t positive?

Scripture makes reference to passions gone wrong, describing them as the “passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.” God wasn’t the one who wired those into us; we have to take the blame ourselves.

So what are the passions of a sinful nature? Name any sin, and that’s what it is. Whatever sins we can’t route out of our lives are passions gone wrong. God instructs us to “nail them to his cross.” In other words, we’re to exercise control through Christ’s power as our Savior. He offers that, but it’s up to us to take advantage.

We might say, “But there’s nothing wrong with my passion for [fill-in-the-blank].” God says unless all of our passions are pulled out from under our control and put under his, they’re on the wrong side of the passion-ledger. Since he knows we’re all pretty good at taking things to extremes, even good things, he promises to help us with passion-control by providing his grace and strength as needed to get the job done. When we ask, he gives it.

Meanwhile, Linnea and I are having trouble finding Micah’s favorite motorcycle. Maybe we should start watching his diapers.

”Because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.” (2 Peter 1:4)