Date: Nov. 16, 2011
My daughter turns seven months old today, so I'm still a really new daddy. She's so cute and often so frustrating. She is at the age where she loves to reach and grab things. Then she proceeds to put them in her mouth, and it doesn't matter what it is - a toy, some clothes, my hand, or her dirty diaper (we catch that one before it goes in the mouth). When it is time to sleep she doesn't want to go. You put her down, and by the time you take your hands out of the bed, she's sitting up, crying...again. Then there are the times where she refuses to eat or the one time where she upended her bowl and made a mess.
These are things that all babies do, but that doesn't make them any less frustrating to the parents. However, it did get me to thinking about something. We treat a seven-month-old child differently than a seven-year old child, and that is different than how we treat our children when they become adults. You can't go into long explanations why something is wrong with a baby; you can only love her and show her grace. As they get older, you can teach children what is right and what is wrong and you would expect the child to do what is right. If they don't they know that there are consequences to their actions. As the child becomes and adult, the parents come to nearly treat the child as an equal. They are not little kids any more.
These thoughts made me realize that this is very similar to how God treats us. When we first come to God (or he first comes to us), we are like babies exploring the world. We don't know what a dirty diaper is and want to put it in our mouths because it's new and we have to try all the senses out. However, Jesus just pours out his grace and love on us. We're not reprimanded or rebuked at this stage. We are young and wouldn't understand what a rebuke actually is.
As we grow spiritually, Jesus opens our eyes to the fullness of our sins. We are treated a little differently, because we start to understand what sin is. We start to see that biting the hand of our Father actually hurts him. Our sins hurt God. They hurt him to the point that our God bore them on the cross and died because of them. That's a powerful bite.
As we grow further, and enter fully into God's rest, we are finally cleansed of all our sins. Then, we will have some parity with Jesus. The Bible promises that we will be heirs of God's kingdom with Christ (Romans 8:17). Then, we are not babies; we are not children; but we are men and women fully mature in God.
It's just amazing to see the things that our children show us about God.
