Safety in this life can’t be guaranteed. As a matter of fact, safety as a goal isn’t necessarily a good one.
Take backyard safety, for example. Hans and Katy were given a set of jungle gym bars and an attached slide when their twins were less than two years old. They explained how to climb on the bars with care and demonstrated the proper way to use the slide.
Their 3 little monkeys took to it immediately, practicing not only the right way to do everything but also the wrong way. I’ve watched them climb with wet feet that slipped and delivered a bop to the chin. They’ve gone down face first into a mouthful of grass. They’ve swung from the highest bars simultaneously, crashing in the middle. They’ve rushed down the slide hoping to bang into the one still at the bottom.
Backyard safety isn’t easy to come by. But if Katy played the role of mother-hover trying to prevent bumps and bruises, she’d also be eliminating valuable learning. Every little accident gives new knowledge that will permanently come in handy.
It’s a good idea to let children take their lumps.
God the Father does the same with us. He lets us try to handle our “toys”, those things we’re convinced will improve our lives or make us happy, but he first spells out the rules in Scripture. We nod our heads in agreement. We might even memorize what he says. But trouble comes when we suggest add-ons that we think will work well, too.
For example, God carefully instructs us how to have a satisfying marriage, but we tack on ideas of our own, thinking they’ll only serve to enhance what God said. It’s absurd to think he might not know the best way to do things, and even more ridiculous to think we might know more than he does.
Those misconceptions are exactly what mankind’s first foray into sin was all about. Satan tempted Eve (and her husband, who was listening in) by telling them the only reason God forbid them to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden was so they wouldn’t be all-wise like he was. That convinced them of two things: (1) they wanted to be wise, and (2) they wanted to be like God. Their next move was, “Crunch. Mmmm.”
It’s a good idea for us to avoid thinking that same way about God’s instructions and rules.
Young children fully believe the world revolves around them, and when natural consequences (falling off the jungle gym) prove otherwise, valuable lessons are learned. If we as adults ignore or twist what our authorities tell us by writing our own rules, especially if it revises what God has already said, we’ll end up with some negative consequences, too. They might come from the police, a teacher, a judge, or God himself and will be far more serious than a fall from a jungle gym. But hopefully, taking our lumps will help us learn.
“May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him.” (1 Kings 8:58)