The Perfect Pair

Some families love to play games and schedule regular “game nights” with their children as soon as they’re able to handle Candy Land. Kids love games: Uno, Checkers, Risk, Sorry, Shoots and Ladders.

One popular game that appeals to all ages is Memory. It includes 50 cardboard pieces, each with a picture on it. These are ordinary items any child would recognize: a cookie, a bird, a truck, a cloud, a flower.

Every card has a duplicate, i.e. 50 cards, 25 different pictures. The idea is to spread them out face down, then take turns peeking at 2 at a time. The goal is to find an identical match, so if the 2 pictures you choose aren’t identical, you turn them back over and surrender your turn to someone else.

The trick is to remember what you’ve seen where, and after a picture has been shown, to remember its position. If you succeed in turning over two matching cards, you get to keep the pieces. The player with the most cards at the end wins.

Memory is one of very few early childhood games based on skill. Being able to re-find a picture you’ve seen earlier by mentally remembering where it’s hiding is difficult. Interestingly, 6 and 7 year olds are better at this than adults. They have an uncanny sense of what-is-where-when.

This idea of finding a good match can also be found in faith matters. Children accept what God says at face value, buying into him and his promises 100%, while we adults feel a need to thoroughly understand him before we can join him. In other words, we need to “match up” logic and probabilities before we can buy into what he says.

When the Lord says, “All things work together for good,” we say, “Well, not in my case.”

When he says, “I’ll never leave you,” we say, “It seems like you have.”

When he says, “I love you with an unfailing love,” we say, “Then why do I feel so alone?”

Children seem to effortlessly match themselves and their needs with what God offers: “You say I’m your child? Great! Then I’ll call you Abba.” (They may not know that word, but they have Abba-Daddy responses to him.) In their naiveté they seem to sense he’s a perfect match for them.

The good news for us older folk is that God isn’t put off by our tendency to doubt what he says. Thankfully he never stops offering himself as a match to us, not that we’re duplicates or equals in any way. But far superior to matching 2 picture cards in a game of Memory is the match he puts forward: our needs, with his sufficiency.  Pairing with him is always a win-win match, much better than anything we can win on game night.

“[God’s] Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.  And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.” (Romans 8:16-17)

Party Hardy?

A month ago I flew with other family members to the west coast for my nephew’s wedding. Although my children couldn’t all be with us, my sister and brother-in-law’s family of 20 was there in force to participate in 5 days of non-stop merry-making. At least one wedding-related festivity occurred each day, and other adventures were wedged in between: sightseeing, swimming, shopping, hiking, running, and lots of large-group dining.

When the night of the actual wedding finally arrived, some of us found our energy flagging, and the young set was especially pooped. Their naps and down times had been set aside in favor of family fun, and energy was dwindling. By the reception, they were dropping like flies.

The struggle to keep going can overwhelm any of us. When adults find their endurance fading, it’s usually a result of something far less exciting than wedding festivities. Exhaustion can come as a result of over-commitment, mismatched commitment, or commitment gone wrong. It arrives in our minds before it hits our bodies so that when it finally does take a physical toll, it can’t usually be corrected by a simple night’s sleep.

So what are we supposed to do when we hit the proverbial wall of I-can’t-go-on? In most cases we know we must, so where can we go for a good dose of staying power?

The answer is found in the Bible. It makes sense for us to ask the Someone who has an ample supply of stamina, resolve, and get-up-and-go. Though our resources to carry heavy loads have a definitive limit, God’s don’t. Scripture says he has “rich storehouses” of all things energetic.

In truth, no storehouse could hold all of God’s fortitude, but in that word picture he’s trying to impress on us that he’s got more than enough for you and me. Pulling our thoughts from our own shortfalls, he’s trying to focus us toward his abundance.

Most of our battles are won or lost in our heads, which then direct our bodies. It’s a good thing he designed us that way, since the majority of us would never have enough muscle-power, speed, or just-plain-zip to endure life’s challenges if they were only physical. So since our minds are the birthplace of a will to keep going, a sound strategy is to ask God to put it there. And it doesn’t even require going to the gym. As we request what we need, he makes us strong.

Our little people may not yet know how to claim scriptural promises for themselves, but God took care of that. He set them up so that a few minutes of zzz’s is all the rejuvenation they need to once again party hardy.

 

 

 

 

“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” (Ephesians 3:16-17)

 

Going Batty

When Linnea was 3 years old, our family of 5 took a vacation to Wisconsin and ended up in a place no vacationer wants to go: the doctor’s office.

It began as we loaded our station wagon for a 40 minute drive from our rented cabin to the county fair. As we climbed into the car, Linnea let out a shriek from the back. All of us looked simultaneously and saw her holding the top of her head as she continued to holler in pain.

Nate and I bolted from our front seats around to the back, and what we saw horrified us. Crawling on the floor of the car was a dark grey bat in the process of folding his webbed wings. Linnea, still rubbing her head, pointed and said, “That thing bit me!”

And suddenly we had a problem.

Nate quickly confined the bat by dumping out a metal tool box and turning it upsidedown over the sluggish animal, and we knew our next move had to be finding a doctor. The resort owners directed us, but before we left, we wanted the bat out of the car. As we moved the tool box, he flew away.

Within the hour, medical personnel were examining Linnea’s scalp wound, chiding us for not hanging onto the bat. “We could have tested it to determine whether or not your daughter will get rabies.”

The doctor told us in most rabies cases, bats are responsible. He described a scenario of certain, excruciating death, and told us the only remedy was multiple painful injections into the abdomen. (This was 32 years ago.) “It’s a gamble,” he said. “If the bat had rabies, your daughter will die. If not, she’ll be fine.”

We learned it’s difficult to tell if a bat is sick just by looking at it, but since they’re nocturnal, finding a bat during the day was a bad sign. The doctor also said, “Any bat found in a place where they usually aren’t seen could be rabid.”

Nate and I agonized over what to do, and because the probabilities were in our favor, we took a chance and did nothing. Looking back, we were probably foolish to gamble with Linnea’s life that way.

There are many ways any of us can gamble with our lives, but there’s only one way to do it with eternal permanence. That’s to forfeit salvation through Christ. Whatever we decide about him in this life will have consequences in the next. It’s absolutely critical not to gamble on this point, even more so than in a decision about a bat’s bite.

Linnea’s story turned out well, especially because of its interesting twist. Once back at home we were unloading the car when we noticed a big tuft of long red hair hanging from the wardrobe hook in the back of the car where Linnea had been sitting.

Most probably, her bat-bite had been a hair-yank and not a bite at all.

“Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2)