Puddles!

A few weeks ago the kids and I were playing in our play area outside and some of them noticed a big puddle out on the cement slab in the courtyard so I grabbed a handful with me to run and splash in the water! Their faces lit up as they felt the cool water on their toes and fingers! A few looking to be a bit more adventurous kept trying to sneak away out in the grassy field beside us. Being the only nanny with the kids I wanted to keep them all in the same area so they wouldn’t get hurt or get into something they shouldn’t. So I kept calling “ma nee ka, ma nee ka” “come here please, come here please!” They would turn sheepishly and look at me, actively deciding if they were going to return to me or if they were going to keep running the opposite way. We played this game over and over, most of them being great listeners returned to me and the puddle, but a few strayed away and I would go after them, leaving the others behind. At that moment I felt like the Lord was speaking to me so clearly reminding me of how he will always leave the ninety-nine for the one. How He will chase after us no matter how many times we choose to walk away from Him even as He calls us to Himself.

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.” Matthew 18:12-14

Reflecting then again over my time in the puddle with the kids I thought about how oftentimes we tend to look at God’s commands as things that hold us back from “really having fun” or “getting to do the things we really want to do.” But it’s actually quite the opposite. God gives us rules and guidelines as a way to protect us from getting hurt or experiencing pain we could’ve avoided. He doesn’t call us back to the puddle over and over to be a dictator but to help us stay in line for the life full of joy and hope he has for us.

“His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.” 1 John 5:3-4

I am so grateful for a God who constantly calls me back to himself, never getting tired of my return. For wanting me to join in the fun of the puddle he has waiting for me rather than the grassy field full of dangers and unknowns. What a gift it is to have a God who chases us even when we get caught up in the temptations of the field rather than remaining in the puddle where he has created a life with Him just for us!