“I don’t think this car senses me…”
“What?” I asked myself first, before repeating the question to 3 year old boy (yes, him again!). Whatever could he mean? Did he even know what ‘senses’ means??
His comment was triggered when he caught his jandled foot on the edge of the car door as he climbed into his booster seat—but, I don’t think this care senses me? Where did that come from?
My boy was that grumpy, that he felt
justified in blaming something that could not possibly be at fault through its pure makeup. A car cannot sense.
He repeated his words at my request, so I had to assume his putout grouch at the car was genuine; he did know what he was saying. If this
is not the clearest example of the egocentric developmental stage, then I do not know what would epitomize it more!
I once asked God why He allowed our secoond son (our little one we chose to let go, as per September post: Praying for a
challenge - would I do it again?) to have so much wrong with him. In deep grief, I cried into the stars—insensitive in their beauty—and thrashed it out with the Maker of my little boy. “Could you not sense that this would hurt
me?"
My grump seemed rational but was really childish thinking.
Yes, God does sense. But he is still similar to the car in the ‘sense’ that he had no ability to harm through spite. He allows our life story to pan out as a result of
sin interfering, and is in control of it all, yet His purpose is to take us somewhere amazing. We are to travel in Him, just like my boy in the car.
Our egocentric natures cause us to see any harm on the journey as being a direct result of the One we
are travelling in. Think bigger. Think like a man. Put childish ways behind, so when the time comes we will not look foolish and show our maturity levels to the world to be laughed at.
God is incapable of not sensing us, yet what He senses most is our
need for growth. A child’s thinking is limited help in a battle. And He is the General in the battle for our lives. We must trust Him. Battle wounds, in practice and on the field, are part of strengthening and equipping.
Thank Him for the bumps
along the way!! And sense the reality! 