Before my older child was born, I received a book at my baby shower. Although after all these years I can’t tell you its name, of the tips and ideas the mom authors shared, this truth has stayed with me— kids see life from the underside.
I thought of that recently when my daughter’s family was overcome with summer colds, and my two-year-old granddaughter’s primary concern was the boogers she could see up everyone’s noses.
We adults are the same way, just not physically. We look at what God is doing from the underside and focus on the boogers. We hate them because they’re ugly and scare us. We don’t understand that from God’s perspective, there are often bigger things going on. He has the greater good in mind while we only see what we can from our earth and time bound lives. We see what affects us instead of his grand plan. It becomes a problem when we allow it to defeat or discourage us from living lives of purpose.
Of course, the things that most affect us are very hard and very difficult. I don’t want to minimize the difficulty involved in navigating life here on earth. It’s hard; it’s frightening; and it’s disappointing. But even then it helps to look beyond the circumstances to our all-powerful God who sees beyond what our minds can see. It helps to trust that he has our lives in his hands and is going to redeem all that is wrong in our world when Christ returns.
But until that day comes, I ask God to help me keep in mind that I am often making too much of boogers.
