Devotion 300 - helper

It was the same thing that has happened countless times before.

All my children had piled in the car.  They were arranging and buckling, but Beau had stayed behind.  He watched his baby sister climb in and then he handed her the seat belt.

None of us was aware of this little act of kindness until we heard Ava’s sweet voice say to her brother,

“Thank you my little helper.”

The car was suddenly silent.  I asked Ava to repeat herself wanting to capture not only her fully articulated sentence but the sentiment behind it.

She did and we all applauded her encouragement and her kindness.

It was nothing really, just five little words but so spontaneous and so perfect.

I have replayed the scene over and over again in my mind and wondered how do we plant and nurture the seeds of gratitude?  I have been a mom that has demanded a thank you when I have served a sandwich.  I have parsed my lips as I have handed the plate or the cup or the candy, with the words, “what do you say??”

But I wonder has that really cultivated gratitude?

We raise our children with the continual handing off of duties.  As soon as they can sit up we encourage crawling, then walking, then dressing, then eating and pouring and cleaning. 

Suddenly the adult “you will” becomes the child’s “I will.”  We turn around a few times and our helpless infant has become a self sufficient young adult.

The weary mom and dad applaud.  We are not done but at least we can exhale.  We have accomplished something and so have they. 

We want independence from their needs and they fiercely crave independence from our demands.

But in filling their world with independence, do we make room for God?

When we fill the world with so many “I’s”, it appears we no longer see.

Can we stop time?

Can we capture that moment at 4 or 5-years old before we are an “I”? 

Could we perhaps bottle that part of us that recognizes we are dependent on someone else?

It is that part of us that sees.  It is that part that recognizes we need our Supplier, our Helper, and the Lover of our souls.  Yes, in the tiny child that may be mom or dad, but what more beautiful picture of our ever present, ever beautiful Savior?

We need to take out that bottle and pour it over our lives every hour of every day.

Through that mist we squint our eyes and see gratitude.  It is through gratitude that we hear the beating in our heart that He has caused to echo through our chest.  It is through gratitude we sense the breath in our lungs and realize our fingers feel and our toes can dig into the soft carpet beneath them. 

It is through gratitude that we have eyes to see the dreams He has authored.

And it is through gratitude we feel joy and endure sorrow as it is His hand that has woven the tapestry of emotion.

I want to thank my Helper Beloved.  I want to speak gratitude in joy and grace in suffering.  I want to see with the eyes of a child.  I am nothing without Him.

Every time you feel in God’s creatures something pleasing and attractive, do not let your attention be arrested by them alone, but, passing them by, transfer your thought to God and say: “O my God, if Thy creations are so full of beauty, delight and joy, how infinitely more full of beauty, delight and joy art Thou Thyself, Creator of all!”    Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

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So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?"  Hebrews 13:6

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.  Psalm 150:6