Oct
26
2021
Seeing Incrementally
Posted in Salvation 6 Comments
The text came before lunch.
I stood in the kitchen laughing.
I’m sure my husband heard me from his office.
It was so innocent.
My daughter had been talking to my granddaughter, who is almost three and a half years old.
Since she is in preschool two mornings a week, conversations happen as she gets ready.
This day, for whatever reason, they were talking about Mexico.
Maybe Mexico was in a book they read and it became a topic of conversation.
Me: Mommy and daddy went there on our honeymoon!
E: Who stayed with me at our house when you went?
I laughed.
It was a perfectly valid question.
In her mind, there never was a time when she wasn’t here.
In her mind, if Mommy and Daddy go somewhere, someone has to take care of her.
To a child, the world revolves around them.
It is a parent’s job to lovingly show them that it doesn’t.
To a child, it is all about me.
It is a parent’s job to train them to be other centered.
Training takes time.
Training takes repetition.
Training takes determination on the part of the parents.
Training produces fruit.
My granddaughter is too little to understand the concept of a honeymoon.
She knows that her world is her mommy and daddy, and her little sister.
She knows that another baby is coming right after the New Year.
Beyond that, she has no idea how she got here.
I remember when my youngest daughter was in kindergarten.
We would read from the Bible each morning.
We would talk about what God was saying in His Word.
I remember the day I read from Psalm 33.
I have this quote written in the margin of my Bible.
As I read to my daughter that morning, we got to the ninth verse.
For He spoke, and it came to be.
Without missing a beat, my daughter told me all about her beginnings.
Mommy, I know how I was born.
God spoke and there was Molly.
The profundity of my daughter’s statement.
The innocence surrounding her beginnings.
She did not need to know all the details, yet.
Small increments of information were given to her as she was ready to handle it.
There is a battle raging for the minds of our children.
The enemy would love nothing more than to corrupt their innocent minds.
The sooner the better in the enemy’s economy.
God’s ways couldn’t be more different.
God works in increments.
He doesn’t have to, but He does.
He could do everything all at once, but for our sake, He works at a gracious speed.
For our sake, He gives us time to catch up.
God spoke and everything was created.
God created everything out of nothing.
God could have instantaneously made the universe.
God worked in a process and then He rested.
They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. (Mark 8:22-25)
Jesus healed the blind man from Bethsaida.
Jesus healed him incrementally.
Was Jesus unable to heal the blind man completely the first time?
Absolutely not!
Jesus healed the blind man gradually.
His sight was restored the second time Jesus put His hands on the man’s eyes.
The blind man’s eyes were opened and his sight was restored.
He saw everything clearly.
We see with our eyes.
It takes time to see with our heart.
The blind man saw incrementally because Jesus wanted him to really see.
Jesus wanted the blind man to see who He really is: the Messiah who gives sight to the blind.
The disciples were nearby.
They saw the gradual healing of the blind man.
Like the blind man, the disciple’s eyes were being opened incrementally.
Jesus, the Messiah, was being revealed to them gradually.
What grace.
We see in part as well.
God can reveal Himself to us all at once.
Sometimes He does, as in the case of the apostle, Paul, on the road to Damascus.
Most of us know God little by little.
We see God more clearly as we learn about Him in His Word.
We understand more about who God is as we hear His Word preached.
Knowing God incrementally gives our heart a chance to catch up.
We are all blind.
None of us know, or even care, who God is until our eyes are opened.
God, in His grace, opens our eyes in increments.
Like my granddaughter, there is much we do not know, yet.
By God’s grace, we will.
When our eyes are opened, we really see.
When we really see, we see Jesus for who He really is.
We will never be the same.
Gina,
Jay and I are both concerned about what our children are learning and how the enemy sneaks in to destroy steal and kill, but Jesus cam that we might have life and have it abundantly. Thanks for this timely message.
I know, Carol.
My heart hurts for the children.
We have to remember the One who is the Victor.
We are powerful in Him.
We must do what we can to push back the darkness.
Gina
Such a timely post! Our children are indeed given too much information when it is too much for them to understand. They need to be protected from this and given the incremental learning as God does for us.
Amen, Sue.
We need to protect the innocence of children.
Gina
Gina I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:12 “now we see dimly, but then face to face…”.
Nancy
Nancy,
You and I think alike!
I thought of that verse, too.
Isn’t the concurrence of God’s Word wonderful?
Gina