My third child, Lindsey, is usually the last one to the minivan. This is because the older two, Ellie and Kenny, have to have a race to see who can get there first. Lindsey, on the other hand, is content to get there when she gets there.
Usually, Lindsey comes directly to the van. Sometimes, however, something distracts her on the way, and she takes a detour, or simply stops along the way to do something.
On one particular day when she was almost two-and-a-half, Lindsey’s attention was captured by the rocks in our gravel driveway. She was going through a phase where she would squat down, carefully examine the rocks, and choose one or two before moving to the next spot in the driveway and doing the same thing.
This day was no exception.
Ellie and Kenny got into the van, and I lifted the baby in her car carrier and snapped it into the base. Lindsey was still busy checking out rocks. “Come on, Lindsey,” I said.
Lindsey clutched her rocks in her two little fists and obediently got into the van. Then, she opened her fists to show the rocks to Kenny. “Look, Kenny!” she said. “More rocks!”
I tried to be patient as I stood there waiting for her to finish showing off her rocks and get into her seat. After all, I had four young kids to manage and places to go. Rocks were not on my list of priorities. They were not important to me.
They could have been.
Instead of trying to get Lindsey to hurry up and get in the van, I could have taken a few seconds and squatted down with her to admire her rocks. I could have shown her that what interested her interested me, instead of failing to see what she valued as important.
Even before Lindsey reached her seat in the van, I realized how glad I am that God takes more of an interest in my interests than I sometimes do in my kids’.
God is not impatient with my interests because he has other things to do. God doesn’t see the things I am interested in as boring—something he might have been interested in at one time, but not anymore.
No, God involves himself in my life and my interests because he is interested in me.
God’s ways are higher than my ways, and his thoughts than my thoughts. God knows far more than I ever will about everything—in fact, everything that exists, he either created or gave mankind the ability to create. Yet amazingly, astonishingly, God still squats down to my eye level to share my life and my interests with me.
Stop and think about that a minute. And think about the wonderful, profound ramifications of that thought.
When you or I have fun creating something delicious for dinner, God enjoys the experience with us. When we get a “well done” from our supervisor, God is glad with us. When our child takes his or her first steps, God rejoices with us.
How do I know?
Over and over throughout the Bible, God reveals himself as an emotional Being who responds emotionally to the things that happen to his people. True, his emotions are not entirely like ours—his are never capricious or inappropriate, never out of proportion, never sinful. But he does feel. He does react to the things that his people experience.
In fact, Jesus says that anything we do to one of his children, we do to him. In other words, he takes the things that happen to us very personally.
The things we experience matter to him.
How incredible is that? That Almighty God cares about the smallest details of our lives? That he interests himself in the things that interest us? That he is moved by the things that happen to us?
Beloved, as you go through your day today, I encourage you to try something.
Several times, stop and remember the fact that God is with you (if he is in you). Ask him to show you his perspective on your day. Ask him how he feels right then about what you are experiencing. Ask him what have been his delights—or what has been his sadness—about your day.
Then thank him for his magnificent love that cares about you and about your experiences.
See if you’re not drawn closer into an incredible, loving relationship with the precious Lover of your soul.
Matthew 10:29-31—Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.