A little background first: My sixteen-month-old son, Caleb, has an enduring fascination with lights. Streetlights, lamps, desk lights, parking lot lights, hallway lights, you name it, he loves them all. He loves pointing them out to me and his mother. Whenever there is a light that is off and he notices, he asks us to turn it on by using the American sign language form of the word “please” that we taught him. When we turn it on, he looks at it with a look of sheer, absolute, innocent delight and then looks at us with the same look. “Isn’t it amazing?”
This morning, as I was driving Caleb to his grandpa’s house, we approached and stopped at a red stoplight near the highway. He noticed a streetlight out of his window. When I craned my neck around to look at him, he looked at me and pointed to it and signed, “Please.” Since it was morning, the streetlight was off.
“Sorry, Caleb, I can’t turn that light on for you.”
“Please.”
It was then I was struck with the feeling of wanting to be able to turn on that streetlight, to be the one with the power of being able to flick that streetlight on so I could give Caleb what he wanted.
As I sat in traffic, I realized this would be the first of many things that I would be unable to do for my son, even if he asks me to do it. I am limited in what I can do, even though I want to be able to do everything I can for him. This made me somewhat sad.
This experience took me back to what Jesus said in Matthew 7, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
I may not be able to do everything for Caleb, but Caleb and I both have the same Father who can! He longs to know us and have a relationship with us where we approach him and ask him to “turn on the light.” Instead of being unable, He certainly can and will bless us with what we want and need because He wants to. He can do it all for He created the world and all that is in it. Nothing is too big or small for Him.
In the same chapter in Matthew, Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Are you too busy living your life and getting what you want by your own hands to remember God and His love for you? Do you forget that we can come to God and ask Him for what we need, just like my son can come to me and ask for what he wants?
As we draw closer to Christmas, remember that God is the Great Giver and there’s no better example than the birth and the death of His Son, Jesus. I may not be able to do it all for my son, but God certainly can, and did.
-Matt
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I Can’t Do It All, But God Can!
December 12, 2013
Calvary
Comments Off on I Can’t Do It All, But God Can!
Matt
A little background first: My sixteen-month-old son, Caleb, has an enduring fascination with lights. Streetlights, lamps, desk lights, parking lot lights, hallway lights, you name it, he loves them all. He loves pointing them out to me and his mother. Whenever there is a light that is off and he notices, he asks us to turn it on by using the American sign language form of the word “please” that we taught him. When we turn it on, he looks at it with a look of sheer, absolute, innocent delight and then looks at us with the same look. “Isn’t it amazing?”
This morning, as I was driving Caleb to his grandpa’s house, we approached and stopped at a red stoplight near the highway. He noticed a streetlight out of his window. When I craned my neck around to look at him, he looked at me and pointed to it and signed, “Please.” Since it was morning, the streetlight was off.
“Sorry, Caleb, I can’t turn that light on for you.”
“Please.”
It was then I was struck with the feeling of wanting to be able to turn on that streetlight, to be the one with the power of being able to flick that streetlight on so I could give Caleb what he wanted.
As I sat in traffic, I realized this would be the first of many things that I would be unable to do for my son, even if he asks me to do it. I am limited in what I can do, even though I want to be able to do everything I can for him. This made me somewhat sad.
This experience took me back to what Jesus said in Matthew 7, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
I may not be able to do everything for Caleb, but Caleb and I both have the same Father who can! He longs to know us and have a relationship with us where we approach him and ask him to “turn on the light.” Instead of being unable, He certainly can and will bless us with what we want and need because He wants to. He can do it all for He created the world and all that is in it. Nothing is too big or small for Him.
In the same chapter in Matthew, Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Are you too busy living your life and getting what you want by your own hands to remember God and His love for you? Do you forget that we can come to God and ask Him for what we need, just like my son can come to me and ask for what he wants?
As we draw closer to Christmas, remember that God is the Great Giver and there’s no better example than the birth and the death of His Son, Jesus. I may not be able to do it all for my son, but God certainly can, and did.
-Matt
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