A Mind of My Own

My son is my sweetheart.  He can be caught doing nice things for me like setting the table, finding his jacket, and putting his trucks away.  He's three years old and he loves to help.  Just a couple days ago, he and I woke up earlier than normal along with his little sister, who recently learned to walk.  We have a rather lengthy bathroom routine in the morning and I am usually last, of course.  So when I came out of the bathroom, I heard my boy shouting, "No, baby!  You will fall!  No!  You will fall!"  Panicked, I ran to the kitchen to find the baby sitting at the top of sixteen stairs with Big Brother pushing her the other way.  The door by the stairs had been left open the night before and in my sleepy haze I hadn't thought to check it before letting the kids loose in the house.  So I thanked him profusely and called him a hero.  When his dad woke up he said, "Daddy, I'm a superhero!"

All that being said, you'll also note that he is three, which means that in the last six months has acquired a mind of his own.  He has things he wants to do and is adapting to my methods of preventing him from doing them.  He also has his own toys that his sister should never touch, some of these toys happen to be hers.  It is a constant learning process for all of us, this "thinking on his own" thing.  But I always tell him, "I love you so much, and I will always love you no matter what you do or what happens."  It does not matter what horrible thing he could do or get into, I will still love him with the same intensity that I do now.  Now, I will grieve for what he is doing, if it is hurting himself or others, but I will still love him and will always welcome him home and take him in when he needs it..  My greatest fear is that something terrible could happen to him (or his sister, of course), and when he is naughty, I am afraid he is heading down the path of bad decisions, which would eventually mean self-harm.

In the same way, we are all God's children.  I don't mean all Evangelists or all Methodists, or even all Christians.  He made all of us and wants the best for all of us, no matter how far we run in the other direction or blatantly disregard his rules that he set to keep us safe (don't jump on the couch, don't hit your sister, don't drink rubbing alcohol).  But he did offer us the option of not accepting him.  I really really don't want my son to say, "Mom, I'm moving to Australia because I hate you and I never want to see you again."  It would absolutely just kill me if he did that, but I would have to let him.  He is a person separate from me with a mind of his own.  But you had better believe that the moment he returns to the States, shows up at my house and asks for a hug or just a handshake, I sure the heck would let him.

God loves us as his own children.  He will always, always take us in, no matter what.  Even if all we are ready for right now is a handshake, God will take us up on that.

Mark 2:13-17 (The Message Bible)
Later Jesus and his disciples were at home having supper with a collection of disreputable guests.  Unlikely as it seems, more than a few of them had become his followers.  The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: "What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the riffraff?"


Jesus, overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick?  I'm here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit."