Stuck on the Cross

Lately my four year old daughter has been stuck on the cross. Ok, not a physical cross, of course, but she’s become stuck on the concept of the cross of Christ. We have read about the trial of Jesus and the subsequent harsh treatment, ending with the cross, more than any other story out of her children’s Bible in recent nights. She talks back to me while I am reading too…“But He didn’t do any bad things. Why did they say that He did?”, her voice shaky with her distress.

My mommy-heart loves that she is trying to figure this whole thing out. I realize it will be a while until she REALLY understands that Christ became the substitution for each of our sins, that He did for her what she would never have been able to do for herself.

What gets me the most though is when she will bring it up at random moments, like while we are out doing yet another round of errands. Suddenly a little voice will call out from the backseat, ”Mom, is Jesus still doing great things today?”

Oh, sweetheart, He sure is!

And I have to wonder, if I spent more time thinking about the cross, thinking about Jesus at work in my life, watching closely to see the great things that He is up to…how would it change my perspective on what I am walking through right now?

“When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross.” (Colossians 2:13-14 The Message)

“Jesus, help me to be stuck on your cross. I know that my sins have been nailed there, and I don’t want to forget why I have the privilege of complete forgiveness. Help me to keep the cross at the center of who I am, and the heartbeat of everything I do.”

I want childlike faith

Mykah has recently been trying every trick in the book to prolong her bedtime. Now, I’m pretty sure my parents would tell you that she inherited this from me as I can vaguely recall doing this myself when I was younger, but I don’t think I had this skill quite mastered at Mykah’s age of 2…

Her new thing is to insist that she be a part of the reading of the Bible, reading out of the missionary book and the prayer time in Carter’s room. And it’s a bit tricky to tell her she can’t when I’ve been working so hard to make sure Carter knows how important these activities are! She wants to pick the Bible story, mainly because she wants to get her brother riled up. She wants to pick the missionary we will read about and pray for, for the same reason. Then when it is her turn to pray, she almost always wants to pray for her daddy, which is truly sweet.  A few times she has even tried praying by herself without having to repeat after me.

Allow me to set the scene for you…It’s a couple of nights ago and Carter and I are sitting on his bed, having just read the Bible and missionary profile of the night. Mykah has long since gotten down from the bed and is now loitering on the floor, walking around, playing, doing her thing, which probably includes some self-congratulations about how she has once again succeeded in being part of Carter’s bedtime routine.

“Carter who do you want to pray for tonight?”, I ask.

“I want to pray for Mykah’s finger,” he answers, while my heart swells with pride that he is remembering his sister’s ailment (See my last post for the full story on the mashed up fingernail).

“NO PRAY FOR MY FINGER!!!” Mykah responds, while I try to encourage her that Carter just wants her finger to feel better and isn’t it sweet that brother cares about her.

“Dear Jesus, I pray that Mykah’s finger…”, Carter begins and is interrupted with…

“NO PRAY FOR MY FINGER!!!”

He tries again. “Dear Jesus, I pray that Mykah’s finger…”,

“NO PRAY FOR MY FINGER!!!”

He finally gets the whole prayer out. “Dear Jesus, I pray that Mykah’s finger would get all better. Amen.”

Mykah responds adamantly again, ” NO PRAY FOR MY FINGER!!!”

To which Carter triumphantly proclaims, “MYKAH, IT”S TOO LATE!”