Creation 1 - Core Competencies

I've got a couple entries I'd like to do with Creation as the backdrop. A couple come as a result of contemplation and the experience of the birth and the creation of Seth and watching him the past month (yes it has been month already!). The other from a Life Group experience that took place this past Wednesday. (Life Group Update - Since the birth of Seth, Michele and I are no longer hosts and I no longer teach at a Life Group. A newborn kind of saps all the time and energy. But it has been refreshing and invigorating to leave the house on Wednesday evenings to attend a different Life Group.). These posts aren't going to be on Creation per se. But just keep it as a back drop.

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Seth is a newborn infant. One month old. He coos and and oohs and ahhs. He wimpers and moans and sometimes screams. When he is awake his head is always moving, his eyes darting here and there, his legs are always kicking and his arms are always flailing. His hands open and close and once and awhile his hand touches on his nose or his ear and it stops him and he explores it further as he squeezes his nose or runs his finger around his ear. He does not know much of anything. If he is warm, fed, and clean he is happy. He has an innocence that he carries with him. But he is not innocent.

On occasion he doesn't like going into his crib or getting "tummy time." He doesn't want his diaper changed or to sit in his car seat as we go to the grocery store. All he wants is for mom (and sometimes me) to hold him. To keep him in our arms. He has figured out already how loud he has to cry or whine to get our attention. How loud to cry to get mom to scoop him up in her arms and hold him. Usually, within minutes he is asleep. Half the time we put him down and he cries again, the other half he stays asleep until he gets hungry and wakes up. To an extent he's figured out how to get what he wants from mom and dad.

But he isn't competent enough to take care of himself and how to go about getting what he wants. He needs mom and dad to care for him and feed him and clean him up and scoop him up in his arms when he needs comforting and solace. Sometimes he is warm and clean and needs to be fed. Sometimes he is clean and fed but doesn't feel warm. Sometimes he is warm and fed but not clean. Sometimes he is all 3 but wants to be held close. The world is big and cold and scary sometimes. Seth, sometimes, just wants to be held close.

This brings me to the famous story in Luke's gospel about Jesus' teaching about the little children. I use to look at this story in a different light than I do now. I use to focus on the innocence of it all. As I hold my son in my arms or watch my wife feed him, this has changed. My mediatation has changed to competence and care

In Luke 18, a rich young man comes to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. He wants to be in the spotlight. It is no coincidence that Luke juxtaposes the passage of Jesus and the chldren immediately preceeding the verses on the young aristocrat. Children contrast wth the rich man simply because there is no question of their having yet been able to merit anything. Jesus' point is: there is nothing that any of us can do to inherit the Kingdom. We must simply receive it like little children. And little children haven't done naything. The New Testament world was not sentimental about children and had no illusion about pretended innate goodness in them. Jesus is not suggesting that heaven is a huge playground for infants. Children are our model because they have no claim on heaven. If they are close to God, it is because they are incompetent, not because they are innocent.

Additionally, as I observe my son and realize the incompetence he has and watch him scream out for help from mom and dad and be happy as we provide care for him, I am reminded that my spirit cries out "Abba, Father"

The realization that I have an incompetence about myself that manifests itself many times and I scream out to my Abba, Father the fact that my Heavenly Father (and Mother...that's for you Corey) scoops me into his arms and holds me close. He cares for me. He is the competence my life lacks.

I am Seth laying in the arms or on the chest or sitting in the lap of God as he rubs my back and soothes my tears.

When I cry out to God, "Abba, Father"

He says

"I've already taken care of it all."

And I am reminded as he stretches his arms out and shows his love for me.