“What do you want to be when you grow up?” ” A MOMMY,” I always exclaimed! I wanted ten kids, had them all named, and at night would fantasize, not on my good-looking husband, but what their schedules would be! I would begin with their bath right after breakfast….. well, you get the idea! The problem was, I was five years old.. then ten… then fifteen. It was my goal.

Unfortunately, my “mommy” skills were pretty lacking. I begged to stay in the church nursery as often as they would possibly let me, and hold the babies. My first baby sitting job came when I was about 10, and by the age of twelve I had become the most-sought after baby-sitter in our subdivision. Can you imagine? At forty cents an hour the couple would come home to an immaculate house, dishes washed and put away, children asleep, and me waiting up! Finally, at 21, I had my first baby!

No baby company has anything on me when it came to the layout I had hand-stitched for my coming one. I hoped for a girl, prayed for a girl, and made outfits by the gazillion. Even to lining the ruffled panties with rubberized lining that went over the diaper (I was of the “rubber pants” generation!)

There were many things I did not know, however. I thought babies were born understanding every word you spoke to them. And so not only did I talk to her by the hour, but read books, fairy tales, stories, Bible stories–just holding her and reading–and reading. I instructed her in everything! By the time she was three months old, I assumed it was time to start potty training her, and can remember well holding her on the little potty dish (not in a chair), so she could “go.” I probably delayed her potty training by years! But I was too ignorant to know this. By her seventh month she would hold “Golden” books and “read” them.

There is a direct parallel here to Christianity. One day, whether young or old, we ask God if He will accept our faith in Jesus Christ, and “save” us. Some people assume that automatically, like I did with my baby, we understand and accept everything written in the Bible. To not understand begins to undermine our faith, and we let doubts come in. A good example is our grass seed out front here, where lots of dollars worth of seed has been planted on the ground: rain waters the seed, and roots grow, but the hard ground does not give way to deeper roots and the grass dies. Or read the Parable of the Soils (look it up). In other words, you have not let your salvation experience let you develop a relationship based on truth–such as my thinking my brand new daughter understood everything I said to her–but it becomes based on “Well, I do not understand what God is saying, so therefore, the Bible must be wrong.”

The more science understands about the universe, about the human body, cells, DNA, and science in general, the more they are confounded by the unfathomable way in which everything works. But those who are not able to understand toss it aside, and try to come up with an explanation that they can understand. If I could figure out the hows and whys of what God has done, I would be able to be God. I can’t even understand my own body, let alone the universe.

Look around you: as I sit here in my home in central Virginia, I can see the Blue Ridge Mountains, the green trees, the enormous amount of foliage, animals, birds, the celestial display–Red Moon, and more–stars by the trillions, and the Bible tells me that by looking at all this beauty, I can understand that it was made by a power greater than anything I can comprehend. It tells me not only that I can understand there is a Creator behind it, but because I am able to realize this, then when I stand before God after death, if I have rejected Him, I will not have an excuse. There will be no way I can justify that I did not understand that there is a God, and that He made everything. Read Romans 1:18 ff.

Does salvation immediately give me knowledge of all the “why” and “how” and “when” that God has done? Absolutely not. My daughter had to gradually come to a place where she understood some of the words I was speaking to her. She had to grow, to know me, the sound of my voice, and most of the things I did were incomprehensible to her.

Go to the New Testament, read it. Underline the things you don’t understand in one color, but underline the things that you do understand in another. Mark Twain supposedly said, “It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me; it’s the parts I do understand.” Be truthful with yourself. Forget trying to figure out the culture of the Old Testament until you have learned the truth of Jesus Christ and understand His love for you. You are probably, like me, a possible scumbug, but He loves us! He died for us! Enter into a relationship not based on “knowing” and “understanding” and trying to rationalize it your way, but like a new baby, feeding on only the milk of the Word until it’s time to move on to a little more solid food.

Yes, she grew up, into a beautiful young woman.

Father, take those who are hurting–for that is where the problem probably lies; someone has hurt them, and they are angry at You for allowing it. You have given us choices, Lord, and some of those choices cause hurt and evil to tear us down. Help those who are bitter to let it go for just a few hours–that, too, is a choice–and assess their hurt. Let them feel Your love! Amen