The most crucial spiritual stuff we are struggling to understand is already well understood by children.

Of course, it’s understood by children and ME, too! So that’s how you know I have great spiritual depths – sometimes I am immature! (Reread the first sentence if you are confused.)

I prove that I have had a few (VERY!) brief moments of immaturity HERE.

But reflecting on the first sentence in this newsletter, this immaturity may be the source of my extraordinary spiritual wisdom!

Now, what was I saying?

Ahem.

As I was saying, since children understand the most significant spiritual truths well, I will deduce essential insights from the children’s story I shared at the front of our church last Sunday for you to enjoy!

In that riveting and insightful children’s story, I was trying to make The Point that God is NOT (notice the NOT!) a gumball machine in the sky! What I mean is that more often than we care to admit, we adults think of God’s love as transactional:

1. We put in a quarter and out pops a gumball from the gumball machine, or
2. We put in a prayer, and out pops the stuff we want – i.e., a healing, the OTHER person to change (This is an excellent prayer by the way!1), or to hear His voice more clearly.

When we don’t get what we want, when the gumball doesn’t pop out of the machine after we insert our quarter of prayer, we get frustrated and shake the machine a bit, before we kick it and put it in the corner where only spiders building webs will visit it for a while.

We put God into a box and then realize that there is something wrong with the box.

There is.

The thing that is wrong with the box is us.

“And what is your point?” you ask, looking at your watch, with one hand on your laptop, ready to slam it closed.

Children don’t have as many boxes they are trying to shove God inside.

And so, this is one of the essential things we can learn from children and other immature people.

If God didn’t whisper between the “Amen” and the passing round of the Thanksgiving fixings, we think something is wrong with us or assume He is mute. It turns out that our box is way too small for God to fit inside. Would you consider being open to the possibility of Holy Spirit right next to you, whispering and trying to wake you up in ways you could never imagine.

For example, God spoke quietly and inaudibly to me as I watched some fish once.

I will let this riveting example blow your mind next time so as not to overwhelm you with spiritual profundity. The Point is that God is way more creative than we give Him credit for, in how He is reaching out to us and trying to get our attention. He is EVEN MORE creative (AND smart!) than we are, for example!

He answers our prayers, even our prayers to be able to perceive Him, in more unusual ways than we imagine.

As the song below plays, consider asking Holy Spirit how He longs to poke you, to wake you up, and in what ways you can’t seem to feel His nudge. Consider doing a 180-degree turn from how you knowingly run in the opposite direction. May more of the scales on your eyes fall off so that you can more clearly see the creative ways He is dancing in the corner of your field of vision, waiting for you to look His way, if only the blind eyes are healed.

Blind eyes will be opened, deaf ears unstopped

The Message

Got time to be awakened?

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! Let’s journey together!

Photo Credit: Bucket Head (Cool Hat!) by 1Click on Unsplash

1 For other helpful marriage advice, click HERE and HERE! You’re welcome! Good luck!