Take my son Liam, for example. Liam is about 9 months old. He's finally discovered how to crawl and explore his world. One of the things we are discovering about Liam is that nothing is off limits to his curiosity. This is particularly true when it comes to areas of the house that we would rather him not visit, such as the shoe rack (where he loves to put all of our shoes in his mouth, one at a time), under the computer desk (for obvious reasons), and near bandit's dog dish (again, for obvious reasons). These rules just don't seem to apply to him in his mind. But that's not really the point. Liam is 9 months old, and we don't expect him to yet grasp the concepts of bacteria, viruses, and the imminent dangers of electric shock.
The amazing thing is when we put a whole lot of toys in front of him, he still seems to show less interest in them (even new toys, at times) than in the "off limits" areas we have designated. This kind of reminds me of the Garden of Eden in Genesis Chapter 3. God gave Adam and Eve paradise. He gave them love and everything they could want. They had full reign to anything except one tree. I can't imagine what was appealing about the that tree that the other trees didn't have. There was even a tree of life, which God didn't leave off limits. However, they were drawn and then ate from the forbidden tree, despite all the other things that God had given them.
Now, let's look at Liam: This morning I went downstairs to our basement to bring up a whole bin of toys, the likes of which Liam had never seen before. Our hope is that these toys would be a good distraction to Liam from the forbidden areas of the house. While it seemed our plan had worked, it wasn't more than 10 minutes later that I found this:
Where was Liam? Why wasn't he playing within the "toy paradise" that we gave him? Because his little sinful heart would rather be here:
Our hearts are always drawn to disobey our authorities as well as our God. Even before sin, Adam and Eve did it. Why should we be any better off than they? We have the curse of sin. Even little Liam at 9 months has this. Thankfully, he has parents who know of a Savior who can rescue him from this problem. Oh, it won't make him sinless (at least not in this life), but at least he will know that God loved him enough to give him a cure for it.
We have a lot to learn about ourselves, and sometimes I think children are great reminders along the way.
Thank you, God for reminding me each day that I need You through my children, because I know that my sinful heart would like me to forget.
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