I Want to Talk!

Our family was sitting around the table with General Hubbub reigning.  Everyone was in the process of saying something.  Our children were sharing something they'd read, or some odd trivia they'd found on a map of Virginia, or something that had happened to them (and not doing with library voices either).

In the midst of this Victoria's plaintive voice came wailing, "I want to talk!"

We were all silent for a few moments and then I asked her, in the stillness, "What do you want to say, Victoria?"

There was another pause, then she said, "I don't know."

I suppose the thing is not so much that Victoria wanted to talk as she wanted to have someone else listen to her and pay attention to her.

I think that all of our children have had similar moments.  These are times when they feel as though they have not had enough attention from their family and cry out for it in one way or another.

They come by this honestly, because I too have developed some attention seeking behaviors at certain immature moments.  While my job is listening to others, there are more than a few times that I have wanted someone to listen to me.

The blessing is that God is always listening.  He tells us in the book of Isaiah "Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear."

Many times that is all I need.  I don't need someone to solve every problem or part the Red Sea for me.  I just need a Heavenly Father who listen to how my day  was and tell me that He cares and just be there to hear me and love me.

And while my Father in heaven created the Universe, sometimes I think His willingness to listen to me is His most miraculous trait of all.

Tomatoes in Heaven?

"Dad, will there be tomatoes in heaven?"  My eight year old son asked me, as he poked at the garden salad in his plate.

"Probably so," I said, without thinking too much about the question.

"Oh," Elliot said, somewhat crestfallen.  "But I thought there would only be things we like in heaven."

To be clear, Elliot doesn't like tomatoes.  He can eat them, but seemingly only with a healthy dose of ranch dressing added to them.

There was a long pause as my children digested the fact that there might be food they wouldn't like in glory.  "Well, I just won't eat them!"  Elliot said with finality.

"Neither will I!"  Echoed Vince and Victoria.

Of course, I don't actually know about the tomato situation in heaven.  It just isn't mentioned in the Bible -- probably because it isn't particularly important.

At the same time, I think the mistake many (including my children) make is to think that we will want and like the same things in heaven that we do here on earth.  The Apostle John wrote in his first letter "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is." (I John 3:3)

Just as our tastes and desires change when we become a Christian, they will change again when we see Jesus in that day.  The blessing is that we will be like Him for all eternity.

Possibly that means that people who only like ketchup will like tomatoes too, but that is probably just the tiniest part of what it means to be like Jesus.

Heaven will be wonderful.  Even if there are tomatoes there.

A Box of Packing Peanuts

"Oh, wow!"  My (now eight year old) son, Elliot said. "What are you going to do with those?"

"I'm not sure," I said.  "I suppose just throw them away.  I'm not sure what you can do with packing peanuts if you don't have anything to pack."

I had just opened a box full of greenish colored packing peanuts with one small item wedged somewhere in the middle.  Elliot grabbed a couple out.  Then he popped one in his mouth.

"Elliot,"  I said, a little sharply I'm afraid.  "Don't eat that.  It isn't good for you."

Elliot quickly swallowed the packing peanut.  "But Dad," he said.  "They're so good -- just airy and chewy.  I've eaten them a lot before and they never hurt me."

"That doesn't mean that they are good for you," I said, a little at a loss for words.

I know that people eat food all of the time that has minimal nutritional value, but seldom does it contain quite as little as Styrofoam packing peanuts do.  I have often thought that cheese puffs were probably just fried packing peanuts with artificial cheddar dust sprinkled on them, but I'm not totally sure about that.  Still, I have never had a desire to pop one of those little squeezy items in my mouth either, even if they aren't going to kill me immediately.

I think there is a human tendency to pursue foods that taste good, regardless of their nutritional content.  We really don't much more excuse to eat them other than the simple fact that we enjoy them.

The goal should be to get to the place where we make wiser choices, to think about the food and activities we choose for ourselves with more regard than simply to whether we enjoy them.  God created us with minds that we can use to discern what is good for us.

Eating a box of packing peanuts certainly isn't.