I stopped in a Mardel store the other day to pick up a birthday card for a last-minute get-together invitation. I wasn't inside very long before a young boy began crying and having a bit of a tantrum further inside the store. It continued non-stop, at varying levels, for the many minutes I stood making my selections of boxed birthday cards (best to be prepared for future invitations!). When I had made my choices, I walked to the registers. While I had been selecting my cards, this family had also made their way to the registers.
The family was interesting group consisting of a grandparent, two parents, and two children. The adults were Caucasian and the children were each of a different ethnicity. The young boy in question appeared to be around 7 or 8 if I had to guess (I am horrible with ages - including my own!). His brother appeared several years older. Watching the two boys for several moments, it seemed as if each had some sort of learning or behavioral issues. While the mother was speaking with the older boy, fully involved with his interaction with the world around him, and praising him for his ability to read a few nearby signs, the father stood slightly ahead of them with the unhappy child sitting in the front of the shopping cart.
My attention was naturally drawn to the rowdy and chaotic scene of the father and son interactions. It was never clear why the boy was unhappy, but there wasn't any means of consoling him. The father calmly tried soothing him, and the boy continued to wail. When didn't work, the father gently urged his son into behaving which fell on deaf ears. With urging calm behavior going nowhere, the father picked the boy up out of the cart to hold him in his arms as if he were a younger child, and the boy's wails were accompanied by trying to wiggle out of his father's arms. Obligingly, the father set his son's feet on the ground while holding his hand. The boy continued to wail and attempted to pull his hand free of his father's. As this scene continued for several minutes while the grandmother and mother checked their items out, the father began to escort his son out of the store to remove the disturbance for the other customers and workers. Being led outside brought an immediate elevation of his tantrum and volume to his screams as he began pulling against his father screaming, "No!" Once outside, the man stood holding his wailing son on the other side of the glass doors.
That scene isn't an uncommon matter for anyone who has had children, who has taken care children, or has ever seen children. It is just a fact of life that practically happens with or around everyone at one time or another. But watching the interaction between this particular father and son stirred my thoughts for some reason.
It seemed to me a good exemplary image of the relation with our heavenly Father and ourselves because even after we become children of God, we aren't perfected instantly.
The moment of our salvation is called justification because when we put our faith fully and completely in Jesus' sacrifice alone for our sinfulness, He justifies us right then before God the Father and the Holy Spirit begins dwelling in us.
The future moment when we will be fully transformed into the image of Jesus is called our glorification. We will finally be rid of all sinfulness and made holy and righteous.
The lengthy period of time between those two moments is a time of spiritual growth called sanctification. Just as with human physical, mental, and emotional development, sanctification happens at differing speeds and to differing levels with each individual.
It's during this time of sanctification that we still rebel and sin against God. Sometimes, we do it just as enthusiastically and wholeheartedly as that child displayed his unhappiness. Just as the son's tantrum was turning into a defiance of his father's corrections, our sins are a defiance of God, His ways, His nature, and His commands.
Imagine us as that child and his father as God the Father. Imagine instead of a tantrum it is some sin in our lives. We act out in that sin. In response, God tries to correct us. As we continue acting out, He holds us close and holds our hand. But sometimes our acting out is too much, and He removes us from the field.
This is demonstrated throughout the Old Testament. In the time of the judges, when Israel became defiant and sinful against God by worshiping the gods of Canaan and engaging in their sinful acts, He allowed the surrounding nations to harass and conquer them: Moabites, Edomites, Midianites, Amorites, Amalekites, Philistines, etc. Eventually in their trauma, they would cry out to God and He would bring up a judge to deliver them. But they would revert to their sinful ways and begin the cycle all over.
Even into the kingdom period, they continued this cycle (at least in the southern kingdom of Judah; the northern kingdom of Israel never had a righteous king). God finally allowed the Assyrians to come and destroy Israel in 722 BC and disperse the Israelites throughout the Assyrian empire and import many people from around the empire to live in Israel. Eventually God allowed the Babylonian empire to conquer the sinful kingdom of Judah in 586 BC which led to the Judeans' deportation to Babylon for a period. God, true to His word though, returned them to their promised country. Again in 70 AD, Israel was destroyed by the Romans which culminated in 136 AD with Rome crushing the final Jewish revolt, outlawing Jews from entering Jerusalem, and renaming the land from Judea to Palestine after the ancient Israelite enemies, the Philistines.
That father in Mardel tried patiently for many long minutes and in many different ways to bring an end to his son's tantrum. But when he had enough and the son wasn't changing, he didn't send the boy away. He took him away from the scene, but he kept his son with him.
Even when we are acting out at our worst, God never stops loving us. He never disowns us. He never breaks the adoption and ceases to be our Father. God has promised His children an eternity with Him. He won't break that promise. That doesn't mean He won't sometimes take us out of action when our rebellious sin becomes too defiant.
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For another analogous observation on our relationship with God, check out my article of "Two Fathers".
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