We took that table to the party, hid it in the garage and at the perfect moment, we revealed it with pomp and circumstance to my newly turned three nephew. All the cousins gathered around and were properly impressed. It was a shining moment for Jacob.
Since his first work bench triumph, he's been itching to make one for himself. And recently, after a morning spent with dad, I heard the heavy thud of lumber being unloaded in my garage. Jacob had selected his materials, persuaded Tony to get him another box of nails at Home Depot and returned home eager to begin his project.
If you've never built a table before, then you wouldn't know how difficult it is to get started. Those pesky legs are really hard to attach, especially when you only have two small hands to do the holding and nailing all at the same time. A frustrated Jacob left with me later that afternoon as we headed to a family reunion. He had only managed to get one leg on and it was tenuously attached at best.
Tony, who was headed out of town, called me later to let me know that before he left, he had trimmed the pieces of wood for the table legs so they would be even and he had gotten the legs started for Jacob so that when he came home, all he would have to do was add more nails and anything else his little brain could dream up for his workbench.
I told Jacob on the way home how his daddy had helped him with his table and when we got home he literally beamed light when he saw his little work bench. It was everything he was hoping for and more. It was perfect.
Later that night as he was getting ready to sleep, we prayed together and his precious prayer included a request for "mommy's baby to grow well" and he thanked God profusely for the workbench his daddy had fixed for him and thanked God that his daddy loved him so much, fervently sharing how much he loved his daddy too. I would give anything to have that prayer recorded.
I was struck by how Jacob interpreted Tony's help as an expression of love for him.
I've often thought how hard it can be to relate the spiritual realm to little children. Since my grandpa passed away in January and we chose to let our kids experience his death from the final viewing to the burial, they have asked me many hard questions. Some much deeper than they realize. And I've sometimes struggled with how to break down such an important topic for them to digest easily since I want these important questions to burrow deeply in their souls and begin to grow a longing for Jesus. Ultimately, even when I'm stumped, I just give them the Truth and pray that the Lord will use my inadequate words to accomplish His great work in them. And I trust that He will.
But then, it hit me, how very simply Jacob's loving, human father, shows these same Truths to his children in the daily ways he loves us. How he sacrifices what he wants to do, and works for us instead, a servant leader. How he allows them to make choices and intervenes when they have overstepped their ability and his help is needed. How his great wrath at wrongdoing is often tempered with grace and consequences are meted out in loving measures. How he turns a blind eye to the silly, childish foolish ways and loves so deeply that a busy, busy man takes the time to level four pieces of wood and to become a part of his son's project. Love that demands sacrifice freely given. No strings attached.
Without even meaning to, Tony is reinforcing the Truths to the questions that we answer as best we can. And in loving his little son with a love so deep and true, he is pointing him to Jesus in a way that even the smallest child can understand. A small, humanly tainted picture of what our loving Heavenly Father is like. Human hands painting a picture of Holy love.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Eph 3:17b-19
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