A FEW days ago as I was driving to work, I passed by a seasonal playground which a gaudy, yellow banner entitled "the Pumpkin Patch". I was at a red light so I looked over. I saw a mother (presumably) on a spinning amusement-ride with her daughter (also presumably). The mother pointed toward the pumpkins flanking the sides of the ride. I could almost hear her saying 'Look at all the pumpkins!'
The sight was the kind which instantly becomes a memory. That ever happen to you? Anyway, I thought just that before my light turned green and I took off. But the image stayed: that mother, hair pulled back in a simple ponytail, white face without makeup, wearing a bland sky-blue t-shirt, pointing with an unpainted finger as she spun round and round with her daughter happy and content, her daughter with shiny, well-groomed hair, neat checkered dress.
And I thought, it's amazing what most parents do for their children. It's amazing what parents do, simply. A parent denies his/herself of free time, of leisure, of money that could have been spent on themselves. That mother could have had her own hair done, her own fingernails painted, her own clothes neat and fancy. But all goes for their child's happiness. And not for a day. Not even for a week. But for years.
Parents spend years denying themselves, cleaning up, changing diapers, raising, teaching, directing, lavishing it all. Instead of caring for themselves, the care is given to their child.
And what is the child's response?
Children are precious, don't get me wrong. I love kids. I just don't think I could eat a whole one. Ha. Anyhow, children are precious, right? But when it comes to the unabridged affections of their parents, they're downright ungrateful. A parent may plan a whole trip for the sole amusement of their child, for their birthday or whatnot, and what does the child do? Throw a tantrum when it's time to leave. A parent may decide to take their kid to the movies and not have enough money to buy chocolate candies at the theatre, so what does the child do? Scream for chocolate candies.
How many times did I as a child scream against my parents when I didn't get what I want, complain that they didn't really love me and that if they did I should have exactly as my heart desired, without even realizing that my parents were sacrificing themselves on the burning altar of my selfishness.
But hey, that's kids right? Well, at least most of 'em. Babies don't pop out and then immediately ask their mother if she was okay after all her labor she suffered. Children, as purely undiluted human beings, are selfish. But you love them anyway. That's the crazy part.
No matter how that child shrieks in the grocery store or throws a fit at the park or refuses to obey, their mom or dad still loves them. That, in the same way, is how God feels toward His children.
If you're a human being, you're a creature of God made in His image. But even further, if you've entered the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ, then you're very much His son or His daughter. And God puts up with some garbage from us. We're holes that can never be filled. We're ungrateful, unloving and unthankful. And we always want more. If we don't get it, we throw a hissy-fit.
When I see the total self-centerdness of children, like gaping bottomless pits that could never be full of enough candies, enough entertainment, enough dessert, enough games or enough gifts, I now think of how I often act toward my Father (the heavenly One, of course). I think about it more often now after I saw that image of that mother who had dressed up her daughter instead of herself, hoping that her daughter would look and feel pretty, and had planned her day out so as to maximize her daughter's happiness on a ride at the Pumpkin Patch.
How much more has my Father done for me? He cleaned up my mess. He washed me up. He directed and led me to the light. He put His own grief aside in sending His Son to, love above all loves, die for me.
And how do I repay Him? With total selfishness. In the face of the labor of Christ on the cross, I wonder how God could love me since I don't feel so happy today. In the face of eternal love and affection, I can think only of myself and only of getting more. I may as well have spit in Jesus' face as He hung in torturous pain for my own crimes, crushed under the unbearable weight of holy justice.
Maybe you're just like me?
If you could go back and repay your mom or your dad, or your grandmother or grandfather or aunt or uncle, for the love they gave you when you were so undeserving and so insatiable, how would you repay them? You would repay them with the same affection they gave to you. You would turn the focus to their needs, their desires, their pleasure, their honor instead of yours.
This is exactly how we should live the Christian life. It's not about you or me. John the Baptist after having seen the Lamb of God said he wanted himself to decrease and Christ to increase.
All the beauty of heaven, all the bliss of eternity, all the fullness of Creation, all the pleasures and blessings of our lives, all our skills and talents and dreams, all the work of this age and all of our very lives from birth to death... all is for the King. To God be the Glory.
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