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| Photo courtesy of franklyfrancis.com |
Good to see you back here.
While my desire to write, or my opportunity to write, may ebb and flow with the demands of life, I can attest to the fact that God speaks everyday in all of life. He speaks through His Word and He speaks through His Creation. In fact, there is so much being "declared" by creation it is downright noisy--Psalm 19:1-4 says so!
At any rate, I wanted to share an unexpected little teachable moment I shared with my child regarding a particularly beautiful little creation of God this weekend...while I was cleaning the master bathroom bathtub of all things! My four-year-old daughter was perched up on the side of the tub watching me and, to her sheer delight and surprise, had noticed that there were two little ladybugs inside; one was up on the rim, and the other was swirling around in the inch-deep water below. I was planning to swish the little insect down the drain to more thoroughly clean the tub, but Princess was very emphatic about saving the little guy (or girl?).
"He's going to go down the drain!!"
"He wants to find his Mama!!"
I turned off the faucet and I scooped down to help the little beetle make it over to the dry side of the bathtub floor.
After a few moments, we watched him start to crawl again--I felt relieved for my daughter's sake that I hadn't drowned the little thing in my quest to clean!
Another minute passed and Princess grew concerned again.
"Mama! He is crawling in the wrong direction! He doesn't know where his Mama is and he won't find her!"
I glanced over and sure enough, the little guy was heading for the opposite rim of the bathtub.
Then, I paused...and began to appreciate a God-given, teachable moment for my little one to learn more about the Gospel of Christ.
"Princess," I asked. "How do you think you could best tell that little ladybug the way to get out of the tub and find his Mama?"
She thought for a moment but didn't come up with an answer.
I continued, "Don't you think that if you BECAME a ladybug, you could signal or speak 'ladybug' and tell him which way to go?"
She nodded her head.
"Well, that is exactly what Jesus did for us! He stepped out of heaven and became a man--just like us--so He could tell us and show us the way to be saved."
We also reflected upon the way we had rescued the drowning ladybug at the start. Did we just throw in an object that could float, so that he could climb aboard if he wished? No! He was too helpless to do that! Instead, we reached in and saved him out of the swirling tub waters and certain death. Just like God does for us. He chooses us (undeservedly so) and rescues us and saves us while we were dead in our sin. He doesn't throw out a life raft so we can "choose" to save ourselves. NO! He does it all (see Ephesians 1).
Wow.
It amazes me that the good news of salvation can ring forth from a mundane task like cleaning the bathtub. It amazes me that it can be seen in all it's glory with two ordinary, red-and-black-spotted beetles. Furthermore, it amazes me that the gospel is rich enough for me to never fully grasp, and yet a four-year-old can understand it.
May we forever praise a God who saves us and loves us so lavishly! For He.is.just.so.good!
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