{Nourishment In God's Word}

This morning I was feeding my 7 month old son.  It was Instamatic; I raise the spoon and his mouth would drop open.  He trusts me and he knows what I am providing him is good.  My son know exactly what he wanted and all he had to do was open his mouth.  Soon my older two kids came into the room and his eyes shifted.  He watched them and became distracted.  His systematic spoon up – mouth open began to wane.  He is at an age of total dependence yet craving independence, a recipe for complete disaster.   When I reeled him back in and brought his focus back on the food he changed.  Instead he grabbed the spoon and tried to pull it.  From there, rice cereal got his hands and he then wiped it on his face.  So I grabbed a towel and began to clean his face.  He had some right above his eye.  When I tried to clean it he turned his head.  When I held his head still he cried in aggravation.  

As I struggled to get the cereal off  his eye I thought to myself, I know what’s best for him, why won’t he let me take care of him?  I’m doing everything I can to make sure hes ok.  I’m keeping food from going into his eye.  But he can’t see it and instead of being gracious he’s fighting me.    Then I had another thought, what a perfect metaphor for my relationship with God.  How often am I distracted by others?  I turn my eyes away and then think, I can do this on my own.  I know that God knows how to take care of me.  He knows what’s best for me.  And yet, I fight, and turn my head and won’t accept that help.  I think I know better.  So often, I forget that I have a God ready to nourish me. His word fills me with all that I need. It’s so simple and yet the allure of possibilities steers me away from the obvious.  I need to stop fighting and just let Him show me a better way.  

John 15:4-5 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”