Just Like Our Father

Just Like Our Father

My husband recently traveled for work, leaving me home alone with our three children. He very rarely travels, and my almost four-year-old daughter has been potty trained for years without a single accident. If you understand Murphy’s Law, you can probably guess where this is headed. While I do give her credit for making it to the bathroom and getting her pants down, she missed the toilet by a full white-tiled mile.

Fun fact: It wasn’t number one.

Additional fun fact: Since departing from the diaper-changing years, my gag reflex is as healthy as it’s ever been. I can’t even look at poop without dry heaving. Smelling it? Touching it? I’d rather die. In fact, as I peered in on what awaited me in the bathroom, I actually thought I might.

As I sat there, silently working myself up to the task at hand, my eight year old entered the room, clutching Lysol wipes and a trash bag. He looked at me solemnly, like a soldier prepared to head into battle.

“I got this, Mom. I’ll clean it up.”

“Honey, no!” I said. “I would never ask you to do that.”

“If Daddy was here, he would do it. And I am the man of the house when Dad isn’t here. It’s my job to take care of it.”

I think of my husband as the shock absorber for our family. While I can manage to keep us running, my husband is the one who makes sure we run as smoothly as possible. And when he isn’t around, I have noticed that my very typical eight-year-old becomes something not typical at all. He becomes his father. He holds the door and finds my keys, carries in the heaviest grocery bags, takes the trash to the curb, and makes sure we leave on time. He keeps his younger siblings in line and helps me clear the dinner table and reminds me frequently that I’m doing a great job and I am appreciated.

Father God, thank you for providing earthy relationships to model Your plan for us. We are so humbled by Your gift of wisdom. I pray that you’ll continue to open our eyes to how we can best imitate You, especially in trying times and that these actions will have a lasting impact as they point towards You.

I didn’t truly understand how God loved me until I had my own children, and even now, I still don’t completely. How could I? He loves me MORE than I love my children. He loves my children MORE than I love my children. My human brain just can’t wrap fully around that.

But I do understand the many ways that our parent-child relationship is a microcosm of the relationship God desires with His children. So many of us find it easy to model ourselves after God’s word when it is right in front of us, but how many of us do it when we don’t feel Him as closely? How many of us give in to following our own selfish desires when His purpose feels distant or isn’t clear?

I’m so grateful that God gave me a son to show me that the moments when the crap hits the fan (or floor!) are the moments that acting as our Father would is the very best thing you can possibly do.