Birthdays are times of reflection, aren’t they? Times to review good stories, times to think about heritage, times to long for the “good old days” that weren’t any better than our todays, just different. Today is my sister’s birthday. We are just under two years apart, soon to be followed by another sister and brother. Ours was a busy household with parents who did their best to guide us and teach us and to bring us to Christ. I am reminded of the time when children crowded around Jesus and the disciples thought He surely must be better involved with other things than to pay attention to the children. Indeed, when he rebuked them for their misguidance, He asked them to bring the little children to Him, saying that the kingdom of heaven belongs to Him.
I’ve been concentrating my writing lately on three books about fostering and adopting children. If I had my life to live over again, I would insist on making these children’s lives better than living in shelters with uncertainty, never knowing the loving relationships and life lessons learned in families. There are thousands of them even in just my state of Florida, and now many more illegal alien children who are, I understand, working for mere pennies and living in horrible conditions. There are thousands of children growing up in fatherless homes, their single mothers scraping together an income, sometimes working several low-paying jobs. As a society we can and should be doing better. Of such is the kingdom of heaven, even when their existence on earth is difficult, confusing, and insecure.
In this Lenten Psalm #308 I reference that many of us keep childlike faith and ideas about God…Is He merely the kind grandfather who gives us what we ask for, a child’s vision of Santa Claus? The Bible asks whether we still need milk rather than the meat of the Gospel. Immature Christian adults retain their childhood images of Christ, never dealing with the sacrificial Christ who died, yes a cruel death, just so we could have abundant life. God help us to “grow up” to know that with His sacrifice, we are to spend our lives seeking holiness, reverence, prayer, knowledge of scripture, service, and “growing up” to be ambassadors for Christ to others.
Make today your “birthday” when you show the promise of Christ for others. Jesus is calling us to Himself in a world where, as Ainsley Earhardt’s new book title says: “I’m So Glad You Were Born!” Now go out and make something of yourselves in His service.
MY PSALM 308 COME AS A CHILD
Almighty God, Sovereign over all,
I dare come into Your Presence,
Confessing that I am unworthy
Through sin’s taint to do so.
You created me, wondrously created me,
And the whole of creation around me.
Yet I have attempted to make this world
Revolve around me in sinful self-centeredness and pride,
And have usurped power only given me by You.
I always knew You existed. I said, “I believe in God.”
I knew in my intellect that You existed, and that,
Perhaps as sure death approached, I might even pray.
As I return to Your scriptures,
And seriously feast on the message,
As I mutter immature prayers and stutter and stammer,
As I go through the motions, I can fool others, even myself,
Yet I know You are seeking me, all of me,
And I want to know You fully,
Abundantly, Transformationally.
I come as a child. Your word says
I am ready only for milk.
But I ask in Your mercy
To feast at Your table,
To walk in Your way,
To become a true follower
And know the power I have only glimpsed
By having a personal relationship.
Do I dare think of something so great
With the God of the Universe?
May I this day have the privilege
Of full adoption into Your kingdom?
May I, in grateful devotion for all You have done for me,
Call You “Abba, Father” as one of Your children?
I long to know You more fully,
To understand Your mercy and love for me
Even as a sinner, one with no merits,
Except that I believe in Your Son, Jesus Christ’s mission:
That He sacrificed His pure life
For my sins and shortcomings. I come to You.
So bless me, now My God
For I thank those who have become a cloud of witnesses,
Those who have shared You with me,
So that I can fully serve You.,
For I long to give You my all,
Heart, mind, strength, and soul and
To live this life, and eternity, for You.
Teach me to follow, help me arise when I stumble,
And grant me the splendor of Your Presence
When I speak, when I act, when I worship, and when I die,
For I want to live for You in thanksgiving for Jesus’ love
For one such as I. In His Name. Amen.
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