It was a beautiful day, the kind where you just have to go to the park. In fact, it was so beautiful that my (then) three children and I walked. Ellie, at just over three years, was pushing a doll in her own stroller. I pushed twenty-one-month-old Kenny and three-month-old Lindsey in our gigantic, all-terrain, mountaineering-isn’t-a-problem double stroller.
Twenty minutes after setting out, we got to the park. (It was only three blocks, but you know how it is walking with small children.) The first thing the kids wanted to do was swing. I helped Ellie and Kenny get into the child swings, and I placed Lindsey nearby in her car seat, which was secured in the stroller.
Both Ellie and Kenny loved to swing. I’d push them as high as I could without scaring myself too much. They thought they were flying. They would grin and soar through the air, again and again, reveling in the delight of it.
This particular day was as exciting as all the others. As Ellie swung back and forth, a huge smile on her face, she suddenly exclaimed, “Yahoo! I’m a caterpillar!”
My first reaction to her announcement was that it was delightfully funny. As I thought more about it, I realized that it was also beautiful and profound.
You see, in Ellie’s mind, it was really true. She was a caterpillar! In that moment, she believed that anything was possible. And she was excited! Under those circumstances, wouldn’t you be excited, too?
Why do we as adults stop believing in wonderful possibilities? Granted, we know some things can’t happen. We can’t actually become caterpillars just because we want to. But why do we let our realism that certain wonderful things can’t happen spill over into cynicism, into the mindset that nothing wonderful will happen? It makes our earthly life a lot less joyful. A lot less vibrant color, and a lot more drab gray.
It makes our spiritual life less joyful, too. We often develop the same mindset spiritually. When we become Christians, we start out believing that God can do anything. So we pray for anything and everything, believing that surely, God will take care of it all. But as God answers “no” to some of our prayers, as Satan tries to do his work in us, and as we come to realize that tragedies do happen, marriages fail, and children die far too early, we become disillusioned. We stop asking for quite so much, because not receiving what we hope for hurts less if we didn’t actually ask for it, or because we figure we’re not going to get it anyway. The joyous expectation with which we began our Christian lives gradually erodes, and we’re left in a place where we don’t expect much, because we think we’ve learned not to.
But precious mommy friend, let me tell you something. The God you began to worship as a baby Christian is still the same God you worship now. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. He is still capable of doing the marvelous, mind-blowing things you asked of Him before you started to forget Who He was and began to settle for much less.
In fact, Paul tells us in Ephesians that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. He wasn’t suggesting, and nor do I suggest, that God will necessarily shower us with material blessings just because we ask. But God will grant us every spiritual blessing we need. In fact, His Word tells us that He already has.
And Malachi the prophet records God’s promise that if the Israelites were to bring their tithes into the storehouse, God would pour out so much blessings upon them that they would not have room enough to receive it. And He will do the same thing today. But note well two things: first, God was not promising material blessings; and second, there is a prerequisite to receiving the flood of blessings: dedicating oneself wholeheartedly to the Lord.
Have you done that? Have you dedicated yourself wholeheartedly to Him? You may be a Christian, but that’s not necessarily the same thing as letting God have your whole heart.
Get on your knees before Him, or in whatever posture best suits your body when you make the cries of your soul known to your King. Offer your whole heart to Him, not just for a moment, but forever. And then prepare yourself to receive more than you can ask or imagine.
Ephesians 3:20-21—Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Hebrews 13:8—Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Malachi 3:10—“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
Ephesians 1:3—Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ