God or Vegetables?

 

"Dad, Magnolia is wrong!"  Elise said to me firmly -- quite of nowhere.  I wondered what brought this disagreement about.  Magnolia and Elise are both four-years old and they are both very certain about their opinions, but both are occasionally (often?) wrong.

"What is she wrong about?"  I asked.  

"Magnolia says that it is God that makes us grow," Elise said.  "But I told her she was wrong!  It isn't God that makes us grow, it is vegetables!"

I chuckled a little.  Elise does eat her vegetables well.  "Is Mac and Cheese vegetables?"  I asked her.

"Yes," she said.  Then thought for a moment, "No, Dad, Mac and Cheese is not vegetables, but it is still very tasty."

"I think you both are right," I said.  "Vegetables give you special vitamins that help you grow big and strong, but without God, we wouldn't be able to grow either.  There are probably other things that it takes to grow besides those things.  This is something that is multi-factorial, Elise."

We moved on to discuss other important subjects, but I could tell that Elise was still certain that she was right, while her friend was incorrect.  One thing is certain, Elise is growing -- as are all of her siblings.

I have heard parents say that they wish they could keep their children small forever.  I suppose that they really mean that they would like to freeze time and stay in a particular special moment, but if Elise was correct, all you would have to do is stop giving your children vegetables and they would cease growing.  From what I have seen, even children who mainly eat French fries and chicken nuggets still seem to grow -- and no, French fries are not a vegetable.

Psalms 73:26 says, "My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever."

Magnolia is more right than my daughter.  It is God who gives us strength and helps us grow.  I know that I depend on Him and the darker the day, the greater is my need for the courage that only He can offer.

We do need to healthy things, like broccoli and tomatoes, to be healthy and grow.  Even more than that, we need to have our feet on the Rock and our hand in the hand of our Heavenly Father.  He will lead us in ways that helps us grow -- even after we have attained our adult height.

Seeing and Believing

 

Lo, one day I visited my office forthwith to examine and treat the maladies and plagues which are afflicting the people of Brookneal.  It so passed that as I was in the House of Healing, there in Brookneal, that a woman of the common folk presented herself to my sight.

"Art thou new here?"  She queried of me.

This struck me as an odd question, for behold, I have served the County of Campbell nigh on seven years.  "I started in this office in Anno Domine 2017," quoth I.  "So, I am new, but not Brand Spanking New."

"Oh," she said.  "Well, I ain't never seen you here before."

"Well, my Fair Lady, that is because I am the Emperor's New Physician and only people of GREAT Quality can see me.  Welcome to the club!"  Is what I desired to say to her, but I held my peace and only said, "I suppose that is because you have been seeing other doctors, but you get to see me now."

This seemed to satisfy her curiosity, at least for the moment and we moved on to other things, such as her health and well-being and discussions of my travels from the far land of Indiana and my youth in the land that was round on the ends and HI in the middle were left for Another Day.

I continued to ponder on this subject, thinking on things that are not seen and whether or not we believe in spite of our lack of vision.  In the Gospel of John, we may read the story of the Apostle Thomas, who after the Resurrection of Jesus heard the stories of a living Jesus and found himself unable to believe.

Sometime later, Jesus revealed Himself to this Doubting Apostle and Thomas, in spite of his doubts, found himself unable to deny the reality of the Resurrection.  

To him, Jesus saith, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed:  blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20:29)

It is only through the eyes of faith that we can believe the things which we have not seen with our own retinas and optic nerves.  And yet, there is a tremendous blessing for those who trust a risen Savior, even though they have never touched his nail pierced hands or spear pierced side.

This blessing is far greater than the blessing received by those who believe in the reality of the Emperor's New Physician of Brookneal without standing in his presence (or reading his blog).

Unbreakable!

 

“Dad,” Elise said.  “I cannot break my dress!”

I looked at her.  I wasn’t sure that Elise's dress really looked like it was indestructible.  It looked nothing like the flame-retardant suits that some folks wear around the racetrack.

“It is made of cotton!”  She said proudly.  “Cotton is not like glass.  It doesn’t break.”

At least I could see where she was going.  “Yes,” I said agreeably.  “Cotton doesn’t break like glass does.  It’s surprising they don’t make dinner plates out of cotton.”

Elise nodded her head wisely.  If she was tsar of the manufacturing, a lot more things would be made of cotton.

A few days later, the two of us were together.  Elise had her boots with her, but she wasn’t wearing them.  Instead, she was standing on top of them, bouncing up and down.

“I think you should probably stop bouncing on those boots,” I told her.  “You might make it hard to wear them in the future.”

“Don’t worry Dad,” Elise told me with confidence.  “These boots are made of cotton!”

This was a punchline I wasn’t expecting.  Of course, the boots weren’t made of cotton.  I’m guess they were made of some leather-like material.  More than that, cotton is not nearly as unbreakable as my four-year old daughter believes.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians, “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.  We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.  Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.” (II Corinthians 4:8-10 NLT)

Paul went through suffering that would destroy most of us.  He was probably made of sterner stuff than the average human, but even he would have broken had it not been for the fact that he was “never abandoned by God.”

None of us can stand for long by ourselves.  Each one of us has a breaking point and yet, as we lean on divine power, we can survive terrible suffering.  It is not that we are enough, but that our God is enough.  He it is that can make us strong – even stronger, in fact, than indestructible cotton.