They Are Precious In His Sight

Mia sat on the couch this morning, carefully turning the pages in her children's Bible. She loves this Bible with its bright illustrations and short stories, and she'll spend several minutes -- several times a day -- looking at the pictures and wondering about their meanings. We go through phases where this Bible is the only storybook she wants to read. This time, she'd stopped on a picture of Jesus, surrounded by children.

Looking up from the pages, she said, "Hey mom, why did Jesus love the little children, all the children of the world?"

I smiled at her question; the words were sung sweetly instead of being merely asked. But beyond smiling, I had to stop and think for a second about how to answer. This wasn't one question in a string of a thousand 'why's'. This was a real question, one that might stick with her.

"Well," I said, "Jesus loved them because he loves everyone. But he especially loved the children -- all of them -- because they were innocent and pure and hopeful. They were important for the future and they trusted him." There, I thought. That had to have covered the bases.

Except, Mia didn't think so. "No," she said. "They crawled. They didn't trusted him, they crawled to him."

"Oh," I laughed. Her interpretations were cute. "Trust is different from crawling, sweetie. They're not the same."

Mia accepted my answer and I was glad. Because what if she had asked me to define TRUST? I'd need to look it up to know how to explain the concept, and even then, can a 4 year old grasp such a subject? She's so young and innocent, and yes, trusting, that she'll believe whatever answer I give. Even a vague one about trust not being equal to crawling.

But the more I consider it, isn't trust equal to crawling? When you're too unsure for big, giant steps, but unable to stop entirely, you crawl. When you must move forward and even baby steps seem daunting, you crawl. And by crawling, you've made the decision to trust despite the uncertainty in your future. To follow the compelling need to proceed even when your destination is unclear.

Justin and I are going through some job-related uncertainty right now, and it feels like we're crawling. We're questioning the direction our lives need to take, too anxious to step in long strides towards an outcome, so we're crawling. We try to trust, moving forward cautiously, trying to maintain optimism. We pray that something will become clear enough for our shaky legs to gain enough strength and confidence to stand. To walk.

And that feels like trust to me: crawling, praying, hoping. Knowing that Jesus loves his little children -- crawling or otherwise -- and will be waiting with a steadying arm when they're ready to walk.