Eight month old Emerald has accomplished a great deal in her short life, learning to recognize people, communicate in different ways, speak her first word (ma-ma), sit up, shake musical instruments, and eat solids. Since she’s checking off her milestones in the usual order, her next accomplishment will be crawling.

Already she does “the bridge,” a hands-and-knees crawling-lookalike, but so far it’s gone nowhere, though that’s not to say she doesn’t move. She’s perfected the belly-swivel and can do a 360 spin with excellence.

I remember when my firstborn was 8 months and was stuck in one spot just as Emerald is now. I figured he was frustrated and decided to teach him to crawl. Every day I worked with him on the carpet, moving his arms and legs in left-right crawling positions, showing him how.

As I continued tutoring him (which resembled a strange type of physical therapy), he’d often plop chin-first onto the rug, unable to coordinate his 4 limbs. Several weeks later, when he began to crawling for real, I beamed with pride at my young student, patting myself on the back for his success.

No one told me he would have crawled on his own, had I never worked with him. An experienced parent would have known that, and as my other 6 children came along and crawled by themselves, I learned it too. God is the One who programmed babies to crawl and later walk, wonderful gifts, but that doesn’t mean the process is easy for them. Each one has to develop persistence, working hard at it day after day, falling and failing again and again.

Our heavenly Parent does something similar with us. He saves our souls and then lets us work at becoming Christ-like. Unlike learning to crawl or walk, this isn’t a task that can be successfully checked off a list. It’s an effort that lasts a lifetime.

But just as God programs children to crawl and walk, he programs us with something, too. The 17^th century philosopher Pascal called it “a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man” that can only be filled by Christ. And that’s what’s drawing us when we begin a relationship with Jesus. We find ourselves desiring to become more like him. But just as a baby struggles to crawl and walk, we must persist in our efforts to walk in righteousness. When we do, God is pleased.

As for Emerald and her non-crawling, we’ve found the solution: to encircle her with toys so that as she swivels, she always has something fun to do. One of these days, though, she’ll crawl right out of that circle…. because that’s what God programmed her to do.

“Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” (Philippians 2:12-13)