A story that didn't make the cut...

I wanted to use this illustration in my sermon on Sunday but since the sermon was already over 20 minutes, I had to axe it.

Rob Bell tells an great little story in one of his Nooma videos:

Rob is walking with his son through a mall and they pass by one of those little mini-stores that sets up right in the middle of the walk way. The guy working the booth invites them to play with this little toy, some sort of a sticky rubber thing on a string. And his 5 year old son just loves it. "I want one" he says. So Rob starts laying out his case for why it's not a good idea: It won't work, it will wrap around your wrist, or your neck, it will hit you in the face...

And his son gives him that look: "But I thought i said you love me."

He ends up having to carry his screaming son out of the mall to the car.

Rob makes the point that at that moment, all his son can see is the thing he wants. The son thinks he knows what he wants (what he NEEDS!) and his world falls apart when he can't have it.

But what his son can't see in that moment is the bigger picture. Rob knows that there is something better. Something later. Something else. The next stop on their family trip is another store. They walk in and march right up to this wall filled from top to bottom with kick balls. And Rob sets his son down in front of these wall and with great joy says "Take your pick."

This is a great lesson on our expectations of God. God sees the bigger picture. God knows what's we really need. God knows that there is something better, something next, something else. So when we don't get what we want, or what we expect, or what we think we deserve from God, do we react like the kid in the mall? Or do we react with the wisdom of the parent, knowing that God has something else?

This Christmas, we have a great chance to help our kids see the things that really matter. We have a chance to help them see that there are things bigger, better, and more significant than just having the thing that's right in front of them that they think they need so badly. And by helping them see that, we start to give our kids the tools they need their whole life long to trust God to give them what they really need.