There was a time we could only dream of walking through the mall together without looking like a small army. The juggernaut-double-stroller-tank we have pushed around for a long time now, has finally begun to be unnecessary for our average trip to the stores.
Yet there we were, walking as a family, when we realized our youngest was walking/sometimes jogging to catch up….with her hands firmly planted deep in her pockets. We couldn’t help but smile, pretending not to notice, because as any parent knows – as soon as you look/try to take a picture, they usually stop doing that cute thing they’ve been doing all along. 🙂
A couple days later, as we were enjoying a sabbath day relaxing and wrestling around on the ground, she comes over with a pillow “Here daddy!” she yells, as she slides it under my head. Next, she grabs a small blanket off the couch and comes over to lay it across me, before patting my head and kissing the side of my face. I look up at her, and her face transforms into a giant smile that could melt the heart of a mighty Philistine.
These are the “terrible two’s” that everyone warned us about?
I realize, there are also moments of extreme defiance and testing, but over all – our experience with all 3 girls is that the age of 2 is a pretty great year. A year that severely puts to shame and disproves any assumed sort of “terrible”-ness. In fact, if we could have an extra year of “2” for each of our kids, I’d sign up easily.
So it continues to make me smile when someone finds out she’s 2, and immediately reveals their reflex-thought, “Oooooh, terrible two’s, eh?”
We make a lot of assumptions about the people around us on a regular basis. The church is not immune to this, by any means. We hear a fact or two about someone we’ve shared a pew with, and automatically we know who they are during the other 167 hours a week. We know they struggle with their faith. We know they’re a solid family with no troubles to be lifted up in prayer. We know…..
Fortunately, we have reminders in scripture of what we actually do know. We know all have sinned, and fall short of God’s glory. We know that anyone who is in Christ has been made a New Creation. We have reasons each week, to both be in prayer for – and stand side by side with – anyone else who would declare Christ as Lord.
May this bring us a surprising new experience of worship, as we are surrounded by people who are silently suffering. By people who are so freshly being transformed, they may not “fit the mold” yet. After all, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
words from wick 