Trey and My Lesson

Trey is the man! Here he poses underneath a tree in our backyard.

Today, Kassady was sick with a viral infection, from which she has recovered with no damage to herself, but with great damage done to my two pillows (they're in the trash can right now; I know, overshare), so I took Trey to his dentist appointment to get two caps put on. He went absolutely nuts! First of all, they wouldn't let me go back with him, which I thought was a little strange considering that this would be slightly traumatic for a 3 year old. Mistake #1. They tried to put this breathing mask on him that resembles those worn by F-16 fighter pilots. Mistake #2. Trey went postal! He was jerking, sobbing, and unable to focus by the time they called me in. I sat beside the bed holding Trey's hand. I tried my best to get him calmed down, to just lay back in the seat, but to no avail.

I finally scheduled another appointment (which involves sedation) and walked out embarrassed and more than a little frustrated. I was pretty upset with Trey, until about a couple of miles down the road it hit me! He's a little kid! He hasn't gone through this before. It's brand-new territory for him. I have perspective. I know this is going to be a good thing for him. He just sees what's going on right then and it's more than a little scary.

After asking God to forgive me for my impatience and lack of compassion for my little guy, I thought about what God goes through with us. We hit something that's pretty deep and overwhelming and what do we do? We go nuts! We might not flail around and burst out into loud sobs, but we definitely stress out and try to figure out everything for ourselves. All we're seeing is what's going on around us. We can't even begin to comprehend the implications.

I'm glad God doesn't get embarrassed or frustrated with us. Yeah, He's trying to tell us to just relax. He has perspective. He knows what is going on. He's sitting there beside us the whole time. But, most importantly, He doesn't get upset with us and walk away. His grace, His kindness, and His deep overwhelming love surrounds us even though we might not feel or comprehend His presence.

God, through what to me was just an ordinary experience, taught me a lesson about how He views His role as my heavenly Father. It reminded me of the Phillips, Craig, and Dean song:

"Lord, I want to be just like You
'Cause he wants to be just like me
I want to be a holy example
For his innocent eyes to see
Help me be a living Bible, Lord
That my little boy can read
I want to be just like You
'Cause he wants to be like me"*

I want to be like Jesus.

*Lyrics and Music: Joy Becker and Dan Dean