My Kids Made Me Think
Posted by: sgregory <sgregory@...>
the past few weeks which made me think. Praise God that He reveals things
to us even through the simple events in our life, and especially through
the mouths of the children.
I hope you are inspired by these.
Steve Gregory
Washington, Indiana
GET THE MESSAGE RIGHT
I was at McDonald's one day having lunch with my wife, Terri and our
youngest son, four-year-old Jack. He was playing in the Playland, a maze
of plastic slides and tubes, while Terri and I read the newspaper. Jack
came over to our table and informed us that some kids were "bullying" him.
I assured him that they were just playing, they didn't seem to be mean
kids, and he should just go back and play. Terri had another suggestion.
"Just tell them, 'God loves you and I love you, too,'" she said as he ran
back towards the tunnel.
Later, as some of the children were leaving, Jack, having been over
talking to one of the boys, came back to our table and explained, "I was
asking him if he was really bullying me."
"Leave them alone," Terri said. "Their parents are trying to get their
coats on them so they can go home."
"I told them the thing you told me to," Jack said.
"You did? What did you say?" Terri asked, checking how it translated in a
four-year-old's mind.
"I told them, 'God loves me and He don't love you!'"
"We've a story to tell to the nations" says the old hymn. But we must be
in the Word of God to be sure we've got the message right!
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THE MAGNITUDE OF GOD
- EASILY IMPRESSED
I am an optometrist, an eye doctor. I was asked to speak the other day to
a group of students at the elementary school where Cameron, my 8-year-old
son, attends. Part of the program was a video, aimed at middle to upper
elementary age, which reviewed the basics of the anatomy of the eye, how
vision works, and a few problems we can have with our eyes.
Cameron was in the room throughout the program. On our way home, he asked,
"Dad, did you know all the stuff on that movie?"
"You mean the video I showed at school?" I asked.
"Yea. Did you already know all the things they talked about?"
Since the video was targeted toward an elementary aged audience, it was
material which seemed pretty "common knowledge" to me. Of course, I deal
with things far beyond the topics of the video everyday in the office.
"Yes, I had to learn all that stuff in optometry school, when I was in
college. You have to know all of that before they will let you be an eye
doctor. It's quite a lot of information, isn't it."
"Yea. I didn't know that you knew about all those things."
Cameron was obviously impressed with the amount of knowledge his "ol' man"
held within him. When we got home, he even told his mom, "Dad knew all the
stuff on the movie." I think he looked at me in a little different light
that evening. I had impressed my son!
It made me think of 1 Corinthians 3:19, "For the wisdom of this world is
foolishness with God." (NKJV) Just as Cameron had been impressed with what
I considered a very basic level of my "wisdom," we too are amazed, to a far
greater degree, by the wisdom of God. When we discover an new truth hidden
in the Bible, when science makes another "earth-shattering" discovery, when
we stand in awe at the brilliance of a sunset or the grandeur of a canyon
or a mountain, we realize, "God already knew all that stuff - and much,
much more."
"Then sings my soul, my God, how great Thou art!"
Imagine having to explain to a five-year-old child who you are and what it
is you do, in a way that child could understand and begin to relate to you.
How much greater is the separation between the knowledge of God and the
knowledge of man! It's no wonder that "the natural man does not receive
the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor 2:14, NKJV)
Thank God for the Holy Spirit, "For what man knows the things of a man
except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the
things of God except the Spirit of God." (1 Cor 2:11, NKJV)
It astounds me when I hear a retired minister, one who has studied, taught
and preached the Bible all his life, say, "I still constantly find things
in the Bible which are new to me." How I long for the day Paul speaks of,
when "I shall know just as I also am known." (1 Cor 13:12)
Steve Gregory
Washington, Indiana
January, 1999