One night last weekend I babysat for two boys ages 4 and 7, another night two girls ages 3 and 4. Boys and girls, what a night and day difference! The first night we played with trucks in a sand box, built roads and closed with a show of Power Rangers. The evening with the girls consisted of playing with dolls, playing dress up and pretending to be princesses, ever waiting on their prince charming. What struck me in both instances was the lack of reality the kids were living in. I’m all about using the imagination and stirring up creativity, but theirs seemed to hit a ceiling with fairy tales and super heroes.
As I watch children in this city each week, my heart is faced with how much we are inundated with the ways of the world and I’m convicted of my own separation from the reality of who God is. While fairy tales and superheroes don’t exist, there is a Man who is a King, the Prince of Peace, Ruler of the kings of the earth who is alive and coming soon. This is reality. God rebukes Israel for turning from Him to worthless things and in doing so becoming worthless themselves. We become what we behold. I don’t want to live in fantasy, I want reality. I want to fill myself with what lasts forever. There are permissible things in this world, not wrong or bad in themselves, but may not be beneficial. I want to pursue that which will edify my soul and bring me life. My flesh is so weak in this journey, but I know the Lord is helping me and will continue to reveal the superior pleasures that come from His right hand. We sang a chorus tonight that sums up my thoughts, “By Your (God’s) will I exist and I was made, I was made for Your (God’s) pleasure.’ I want to live in the pleasure of God, which is both higher than that which can create apart from Him and gives Jesus the labor of His soul. (NKJ Isaiah 53:11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.)
