Things To Be Learned

For the last week and a half, I've been living with a friend of mine. She and her husband generously offered to let me live with them this year, giving me room and board in exchange for watching their baby a certain number of hours a week. It works out well for all of us, because I don't have to go into debt to pay for housing, and she gets some time to herself, which is always valuable when you're a new mom. Or an old one, for that matter.

Since school doesn't start until tomorrow, I've had a lot of time to hang out with B, their baby. He's just barely eight months, and definitely a handful -- the kind of baby that doesn't ever slow down or give you a break. Plus, for some reason that stumps us both, he's been off his eating and sleeping schedule, resulting in all of us being cranky and tired. Which is annoying, but not the point of this post. It's been awhile since I've spent this much time around a baby; the last time was when Nathan was born, almost five and a half years ago. Being at an age where B could be my baby, it makes me think. I've learned a lot in the last week and a half.

But I think what has come to me, over and over, is just how much our earthly relationship with our parents mirrors the one we have with our Heavenly Father. B's favorite thing to do is to find whatever he shouldn't be into and try his darndest to get into it. Whether it's dangerous (knives, electric outlets, heavy objects, etc) or just liable to be ruined by his overenthusiastic attempts at exploration (cell phones, books, computers) since he mostly explores with his mouth, when we take it away, his reaction is the same: full-on temper tantrum. "But I want it! I want it, and you don't love me because you took it away from me!" Seriously, you can almost hear him say it. It hit me one day, after I blocked Attempt No. 14,839,292 to dive headfirst off the arm of the couch, or eat a cellphone, or play on the stairs, and said in exasperation, "B! Will you just give it a rest and realize that that's not good for you?!" I wonder how many times our Heavenly Father feels like that in a day? If you think about it, compared to our Heavenly Father we're little more than babies ourselves; we lack the foresight and experience to know when something that seems irresistibly attractive -- that shiny knife, say, or that curiously-shaped electrical outlet -- could potentially hurt us. "But God, why can't I be rich? Why can't I drink as much alcohol as I want and not suffer the consequences? Why this, why that -- You must not love me because you won't let me do what I want!"

Last school year, we spent so much time exploring the question of who God is, and His nature. But really, He's not the big mystery that people think He is. If we really want to learn about Him and our relationship with Him, we have only to turn to our own earthly parents to find out.