Standing at just a tad under four feet tall, armed with a pair of super-powered binoculars and determined to discover something remarkable, Landon approached me with a look of resolve on his face. I was relaxing in an easy chair as my son approached me the way one of those reptile lovers on the National Geographic Channel approaches a python he’s about to catch. My son told me to hold still and, as I obeyed his command, he pressed a pair of toy binoculars to his eyes and announced as he laid the other end tight upon my ear,
“I’m going to look into your mind!” Apparently he had uncovered a secret of which I had been unaware all my life, namely, that one can use a magnifying plastic lens to learn what churns in the mind of another.
What really got me was what Landon said while the binoculars were firmly affixed between my ear and his eyes: “I see darkness, daddy.” With the two ends of the binoculars wedged between his face and my head, no light could get to the lenses. With that final declaration of my depravity he whisked off to something a little more entertaining than discovering that darkness dwells betwixt his father’s ears. Not for the first time, my son left me something to think upon without even trying.
Scripture declares some unflattering things about me. I am told that my heart is deceitful and wicked (Jer. 17:9). God’s word declares that, apart from Christ, I was darkened in my ignorance and blind in my heart (Eph. 4:18). The master theologian and apostle, Paul, declared me to be blind and captured by Satan before Jesus Christ set me free (2 Cor. 4:4). Thinking upon this I recognize that what my son declared via a moment with binoculars, God had already declared through His eternal word: man’s mind is in darkness until Christ’s light shines with glory to him.
As you begin your workweek, commit to the humility that should result from this simple truth. Yes, you may be born-again and no longer bound in darkness but let’s recognize that we have not yet been fully enlightened. Some shadows remain in you. You don’t always employ the ability to distinguish between light and darkness, right and wrong, good an evil. There is an ongoing process within you whereby God is teaching you, growing you and illuminating you. Don’t deny the truth of residual sin and its effect on your thinking and behavior. Be skeptical of your own wisdom and declare with my six-year-old that some darkness still resides within you. Slow down and refuse to engage in snap judgments or declarations. Listen to others, even when you presume that they are incorrect. Take your time to consider things before deciding a course of action. Above all, be healthily suspicious of your own impulses. Again, slow down so that you will have opportunity for God to speak and guide you. You may just find that He is sending you a message through another whom you least expected. And finally, beware of little boys with binoculars…they might just be prophets in disguise.
Thanks again for the insight. Blessings.
There are many things on my heart that just won’t manifest into words this morning. Perhaps it is my youngest starting kindergarten or maybe simply “kids say the darndest things”! (and yes, the show was before my time). In any event, how I act and react to situations has been a huge part of my prayer and meditation focus lately as I try to show Christ in all that I do….. especially as an example for my kids.
I’m with you, Glen. Landon is a 1st grader today and Alicia is in junior high. Reflection is a good thing if it serves to cause us to be more intentional in shaping our children. Tell your kids tgat Pastor Jeff has prayed for them to have a great first day of school.