Anyway, Brock was playing with some small Christmas ball ornaments he found in his room, rolling them down a little makeshift ramp and tunnel he constructed. I went to put some laundry in the dryer, and when I came back up from the basement Roman was holding something in his hand, saying "Broke it." I quickly realized one of the ornaments was shattered in the floor at the bottom of the stairs, the ramp and tunnel and remaining ornaments abandoned at the top of the stairs.
Being the incredible detective I am, it was apparent to me that my oldest child had decided to enhance the excitement factor of his little ramp game by adding the incline of the stairs into the equation. However, as I was sweeping up the shards of ornament (while simultaneously using my leg as a barrier to keep the 2-year-old from dancing in the broken glass: #momskills), it occurred to me that the culprit of this mess was incredibly silent at the moment and nowhere in sight.
"I'm hiding," was the reply I got from the other side of the room.
"Why are you hiding, buddy?"
"Because I don't want you to talk to me about it," said a voice from behind the couch.
"What do you not want me to talk to you about?"
"What I did," said the guilty conscience.
So, that being said, it was interesting to me that Brock's reaction to the broken ornament was to run and hide. I called him to me after I finished sweeping it up. I sat down and put him in my lap, and I asked him why he didn't want to tell me what had happened. He told me he was afraid he would be in trouble, and he didn't want to get a spanking, so he was hiding to keep me from talking to him about the incident. He just wanted to avoid the whole thing and pretend it never even happened, hoping I would do the same.
Then Blaine called Brock to him and had a little conversation with him that reminded me how thankful I am to have such a wise husband.
Blaine: "You know you aren't in trouble for breaking that ornament, right?" Brock: "Yeah" Blaine: "But do you know that it would have been a better choice to come and tell Mommy what had happened instead of going and hiding?" Brock: "Yeah because she could clean it up." Blaine: "And Mommy talked to you about Adam and Eve hiding from God. Sometimes we want to hide our bad choices or our sin from God because we are afraid. But then we miss out on something. Do you know what you're missing out on when you hide from God?" Brock: "No, what?" Blaine: "You're missing out on God's love and mercy and forgiveness." |
|
And then you see Him do this over and over throughout the rest of the Story.
Yes, our sin is an affront to Him. Yes, it is intolerable and cannot be justified. Yes, it separates us from His perfect goodness. But He doesn't want to leave us there, separated and miserable and cowering in that sin. He calls us out, calls us to come and confess and bring those things to light, so that He can offer us something better. So He can clothe us and make us new. So that He can empower us to overcome those bad choices and things that enslave our hearts and our minds.
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool." (Isaiah 1:18)
So we can come out of the darkness and experience His transforming, renewing, beautiful grace.
Or we can stay 'hidden' and completely miss out on all of these wonderfully amazing gifts from the very One who makes life worth living.