When you can't see God he's still there

Brethren, my son Ender is cute as a button.  He’s had my heart ever since he got yanked into the world. And he likes me too.  He always has big smiles for me.  He gives me really nice dry burps faster than anyone else.  He likes our ceiling fan more than me, but I’m no chopped liver, according to him. 

Ender and I spend a lot of time together.  His mom works part-time and I’m home for the summer since I’m a school teacher; so there are five hours a day that I get to play Mr. Mom.  We really like our time together.   

His nap is usually after we’re back from a long walk and I’ve fed him, burped him, changed him, and worked him out with tummy time and a stuffed bee he likes to abuse.  It usually happens in his room.  I know from experience the nap is going to be between 30 and 45 minutes.  

This is my time.  I really like to cut loose right about now because I know the grind is going to continue in just a bit so…  I wash his bottles and pacifiers, make him a pitcher of formula, wash his clothes sometimes, start to prepare lunch, put a bottle in the warmer, tiptoe everywhere, text my wife things about the morning since she tracks his meals and diaper changes, and sometimes get ready to go on an errand with him.  Sometime during this ‘me time,’ he starts crying. 

He wakes up alone and scared so he cries out.  You know if he really thought about what I was doing he probably would think I was taking ‘me time.’  He probably thinks I’m watching soap operas, doing my nails, or weight lifting.  ‘Dad is probably reading some esoteric history tome.’ (I love personifying my son (I know it’s not really personifying because he IS a person.).) 

So I’ve noticed that my son doesn’t realize that when I’m not with him I’m still taking care of him.  You know this, even when you’re at work you’re taking care of your kids, aren’t you?  Rent isn’t going to pay itself, right?  Sometimes the most important things we do to take care of our children is stuff they can’t see us doing. 

Sometimes our heavenly father seems to be very far from us.  We are in the desert and he is nowhere to be found.  We are taking up our crosses and following after him and he is forsaking us.  We’re going through personal tragedies like dead loved ones or divorce or unemployment and God has left us in our crib and shut the door.

But God is the Father and even when he isn’t taking care of you he IS taking care of you.  He is filling your life with providence even when he feels far away.  He is making sure that all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Get the bad stuff out

Brethren, get ready for an article about bowel movements.

The late Lois Williams Murphy’s most recent great grandchild was born after her death and the two, barring any eschatological or afterlife theological issues, were able to spend a little time getting to know each other in heaven before I got to meet my four-month old.  Ender is my first baby but I have had a lot of nieces and nephews.  The differences between your kids and sibling’s kids are legion.  One of the more surprising ones was that I like to change Ender’s diaper and I feared and loathed changing any of the other rascals related to me. 

‘Wait…you mean you’re happy to do it because you love him?’  No.  I like to change his poopy pants.  My little dude has difficulty going number two on a regular basis and so when he does I react as if I’ve won the lottery.  I throw a party all by myself.  My kid must think it’s very strange.  Daddy comes in and takes care of my business and starts whooping and hollering. 

So Uncle Drew doesn’t like to handle the poo but Daddy is happy to get in there and unload my kid’s load.  What changed?  I think it’s got to do something with my intimate knowledge of my child.  I know he doesn’t go often enough and so I know how important it is for him to go.  It isn’t good if a person can’t get that waste out of themselves so a good father is genuinely and sincerely ecstatic to put two hands in my son’s number two.

God is like that with us, Brethren.  You have this sin living in you.  It doesn’t belong inside.  Just like your waste system we have toilets for letting out the waste. The sin which so easily entangles needs to get out too.  Your body can’t work right without getting rid of the junk and your soul can’t work right if you’re not letting out the sin through the chute of confession. 

Now hold on a minute.  I am not encouraging you to get rid of that sin through the sacrament of confession, although if I’m honest, all God’s people need more confession.  This time I want you to notice Ender doesn’t doodoo on purpose to get rid of the junk.  (Actually, sometimes I suspect he does poop on purpose like if he waits five minutes after his mom leaves.) 

I’d like you to notice, this time, how joyous God is to see you get rid of the waste.  God celebrates your evacuations of guilt. God joyously reacts to any time you get on straight paths.  His, ‘Creation waits in eager expectation for the Sons of God to be revealed, (NIV) or it is waiting, ‘With excitement (ERV).’  If you didn’t know, your father is crazy about you and intimate with your being in a way another shepherd could never be.  Your Daddy can’t wait for you to get rid of all that baggage.