“HELPING” DADDY
on top of my piano, there is a collection of pictures ranging from my baby photo to my high school grad portrait. nestled among the more faded ones is one that i’m particularly fond of. it was taken when i was about three. i was outside of our old house with my dad. perhaps it was a saturday afternoon when he didn’t have to work, but anyway, the task at hand was transferring a large mound of topsoil from in front of our garage to the backyard garden. so there my dad was, metal shovel in hand, vigorously pitching the dirt into his wheelbarrow. beside him, i too was holding my little shovel (except mine was made of blue and red plastic) , trying to get the dirt into my toddler-sized wheelbarrow. my face had a look of concentrated determination. of course, i wasn’t really helping all that much, but i think my dad enjoyed having my company and sharing the experience together.
i’d like to think it’s the same with the way God chooses to let us “help” Him in His work. be it showing love to others or bringing about the salvation of the world by sharing the Good News about Jesus, God could really just do it all by Himself (and do it faster and better). but because He loves and desires to share the experience with us, He lets us in on what He’s doing and gives us our own set of tools (our toddler-sized wheelbarrows, so to speak). we may make messes He’ll have to clean up or we may need repeated instruction, but because He is a Father who delights in His children, that’s what He does. and our role as children is simply watch what Daddy’s doing and jump in and copy!
~Ephesians 5:1~