This is an essay I wrote almost 20 years ago shortly after the birth of my daughter. It has become a tradition for me to read it with her each Father’s Day as a reminder of how special she is to me and how much God’s loves all of us.
What I Learned About God From My Child
by Eric Curts
From my blog at Holy Geeks
The question is asked of new parents: Does your baby change you more than you change it? When my daughter, Christina, was born I certainly did my share of the latter type of changing, and somehow I always seemed to end up with the nuclear waste diapers. Still though, just within her first few months my baby altered my life drastically as well. And I'm not even talking about 3 AM feedings, carrying a pastel diaper bag in public, or the ability to use "fontanel" intelligently in a sentence. What I mean is the knowledge I gained about the very nature of God, through the most unassuming of teachers, my own child.
You must understand that nothing God has created is random, arbitrary, or the result of a whim. He knew very well what he was doing when he created male and female. Husband and wife serve as an unforgettable object lesson concerning the relationship between Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31,32) In the same way, parents and children are a model of God and his creation, us. We need only to stop and consider our children to get a better understanding of God's wisdom, our Father's love, and our desperate need for a savior. This was all part of his plan.
The Helplessness of Man
As a baby Christina was helpless. After nine months of gestation, she had the physical ability to be separated from her mother, but that was all. We fed her. We burped her. We clothed her. We changed her. A lot. We held her. We protected her. We loved her. Without us, she would truly have been lost.
And we are God's babies. Unfortunately we often forget that. We earn a living, buy a home, drive a car, and can microwave our dinner in five minutes. And with the pride of a child who takes that first step, we are independent, free, in control of our own lives. And we don't need God.
Whatever are we thinking? From where does the ability to earn the money come? (Deuteronomy 8:17,18) Who created the trees that make up our beautiful house? How did we get the legs to push the gas pedal of our automobile? Who gave mankind the mind to discover technologies for simplifying this life? How can we ever stand up and declare our independence, when the very atoms of our bodies are held together by the power of God?
Let us bow down before our awesome creator, or else, like the teetering toddler, we will be brought down to our knees. Maybe tomorrow in that tragic accident, or next year at the death of that loved one, or on that final day when we stand before God himself, and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:10,11)
The Wisdom of God.
Teaching your child is a frightening responsibility. Does she have the right educational toys to foster the development of her hand-eye coordination? What about the color scheme in her nursery? Will it make her more creative? When do we start teaching her what? Certainly we first-time parents can get carried away with these concerns. Although jokingly, I used to explain Algebra to my wife's pregnant belly, hoping to get a jump on the junior high years.
As a baby, Christina did just fine. Of course at only eight weeks old she wasn’t required to do much more than eat, sleep, and mess her diapers. But she did it well. Actually I do recall being very pleased with a new talent she developed, imitation. One day while performing our required embarrassing faces to make her happy, she copied us. I was sticking my tongue out and she stuck hers out back at me. Obviously we were thrilled and immediately placed the sticker "Copies Mommy and Daddy" on her baby calendar.
I think God has one of these calendars too, along with a book of stickers he wants us to earn. And they are such wonderful stickers, bright and colorful, with such sayings as, "Loved an Enemy," "Didn't Lie," "Helped Someone in Need," and "Moved From Milk to Meat." God has so much to teach us and it all is designed to transform us from the childish to the mature, the captive to the free, the wounded to the healer, and the lonely to the loved. It all begins with that one sticker we must earn, "Imitated Christ." (Ephesians 5:1,2)
The Love of the Father.
I never knew I could love someone so much as I have grown to love my daughter. Perhaps it is because this is a different type of love. She's not my acquaintance. She's not my sweetheart. She's not my best friend. She is my creation. Flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone, I love her with an unconditional acceptance, an embraced responsibility, and a passion fueled by the desire to give her the very best, while protecting her from the very worst. It's a love that feeds at four in the morning, feels the pain of the immunization shot, and never minds that the one it cares for cannot yet return that love.
Never was this love more potent than when I felt she was in danger. Just crossing a busy street with her in the stroller, would bring horrible thoughts to my mind. What if a speeding truck came racing around the corner? Immediately a righteous fury would rise inside of me that proclaimed nothing, nothing was going to touch my child. I would throw my own body in the path of ten tons of raging steel to save her life.
And finally I understand in the smallest way the magnitude of God’s love for us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) Seeing our fate, God took on flesh, and threw his own body into the path of our suicidal sin. Three nails, a crown of thorns, a cross. The creator truly loves his creation.
I have a feeling I have only begun to learn from my creation the wonder of my creator. So, my Christina, do not ever question your importance, your worth, your meaning. Even as an infant, you changed your daddy's life in some of the greatest ways.
What I Learned About God From My Child
by Eric Curts
From my blog at Holy Geeks
The question is asked of new parents: Does your baby change you more than you change it? When my daughter, Christina, was born I certainly did my share of the latter type of changing, and somehow I always seemed to end up with the nuclear waste diapers. Still though, just within her first few months my baby altered my life drastically as well. And I'm not even talking about 3 AM feedings, carrying a pastel diaper bag in public, or the ability to use "fontanel" intelligently in a sentence. What I mean is the knowledge I gained about the very nature of God, through the most unassuming of teachers, my own child.
You must understand that nothing God has created is random, arbitrary, or the result of a whim. He knew very well what he was doing when he created male and female. Husband and wife serve as an unforgettable object lesson concerning the relationship between Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31,32) In the same way, parents and children are a model of God and his creation, us. We need only to stop and consider our children to get a better understanding of God's wisdom, our Father's love, and our desperate need for a savior. This was all part of his plan.
The Helplessness of Man
As a baby Christina was helpless. After nine months of gestation, she had the physical ability to be separated from her mother, but that was all. We fed her. We burped her. We clothed her. We changed her. A lot. We held her. We protected her. We loved her. Without us, she would truly have been lost.
And we are God's babies. Unfortunately we often forget that. We earn a living, buy a home, drive a car, and can microwave our dinner in five minutes. And with the pride of a child who takes that first step, we are independent, free, in control of our own lives. And we don't need God.
Whatever are we thinking? From where does the ability to earn the money come? (Deuteronomy 8:17,18) Who created the trees that make up our beautiful house? How did we get the legs to push the gas pedal of our automobile? Who gave mankind the mind to discover technologies for simplifying this life? How can we ever stand up and declare our independence, when the very atoms of our bodies are held together by the power of God?
Let us bow down before our awesome creator, or else, like the teetering toddler, we will be brought down to our knees. Maybe tomorrow in that tragic accident, or next year at the death of that loved one, or on that final day when we stand before God himself, and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:10,11)
The Wisdom of God.
Teaching your child is a frightening responsibility. Does she have the right educational toys to foster the development of her hand-eye coordination? What about the color scheme in her nursery? Will it make her more creative? When do we start teaching her what? Certainly we first-time parents can get carried away with these concerns. Although jokingly, I used to explain Algebra to my wife's pregnant belly, hoping to get a jump on the junior high years.
As a baby, Christina did just fine. Of course at only eight weeks old she wasn’t required to do much more than eat, sleep, and mess her diapers. But she did it well. Actually I do recall being very pleased with a new talent she developed, imitation. One day while performing our required embarrassing faces to make her happy, she copied us. I was sticking my tongue out and she stuck hers out back at me. Obviously we were thrilled and immediately placed the sticker "Copies Mommy and Daddy" on her baby calendar.
I think God has one of these calendars too, along with a book of stickers he wants us to earn. And they are such wonderful stickers, bright and colorful, with such sayings as, "Loved an Enemy," "Didn't Lie," "Helped Someone in Need," and "Moved From Milk to Meat." God has so much to teach us and it all is designed to transform us from the childish to the mature, the captive to the free, the wounded to the healer, and the lonely to the loved. It all begins with that one sticker we must earn, "Imitated Christ." (Ephesians 5:1,2)
The Love of the Father.
I never knew I could love someone so much as I have grown to love my daughter. Perhaps it is because this is a different type of love. She's not my acquaintance. She's not my sweetheart. She's not my best friend. She is my creation. Flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone, I love her with an unconditional acceptance, an embraced responsibility, and a passion fueled by the desire to give her the very best, while protecting her from the very worst. It's a love that feeds at four in the morning, feels the pain of the immunization shot, and never minds that the one it cares for cannot yet return that love.
Never was this love more potent than when I felt she was in danger. Just crossing a busy street with her in the stroller, would bring horrible thoughts to my mind. What if a speeding truck came racing around the corner? Immediately a righteous fury would rise inside of me that proclaimed nothing, nothing was going to touch my child. I would throw my own body in the path of ten tons of raging steel to save her life.
And finally I understand in the smallest way the magnitude of God’s love for us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) Seeing our fate, God took on flesh, and threw his own body into the path of our suicidal sin. Three nails, a crown of thorns, a cross. The creator truly loves his creation.
I have a feeling I have only begun to learn from my creation the wonder of my creator. So, my Christina, do not ever question your importance, your worth, your meaning. Even as an infant, you changed your daddy's life in some of the greatest ways.