Seeing God through Miles

Miles Isaiah Foster was born on December 17, 2008.  Miles is Latin for “soldier” and Isaiah is Hebrew for “the salvation of God.”  So we have a little soldier for the salvation of God, and soldier may be very accurate with all the yelling and war cries, the running and jumping off furniture, but has yet to embrace the salvation part (we’ll get there, I’m sure)!  It’s been quite an adventure so far and we really look forward to our second child in March 2011, however, we’ll go with a name that is a little more “peaceful.”

Almost two years ago I began writing down the things I’ve learned about God the Father from being a father.  In becoming a dad I’ve learned a great deal about God.  The experience of fatherhood has given me some insight into God’s purposes, his plans, his disciplines, his security, and his life offered to us.

So here are a couple things I’ve taken away from the experience of fatherhood.

1. BAD ALL ON MY OWN – The Bible says in Romans 5:12, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. I’ve never explained to Miles the 7 steps to throwing a fit.  I’ve never read him books on the best ways to be disobedient.  I’ll tell him stop doing something and he will continue as if I don’t exist, or laugh and continue doing it.  I didn’t teach him that!

- By nature we are born into sin and no one has to teach us to do bad things, we just do it.  The lesson I learned here is somewhat simple but has given me new revelation on how important it is that we need to be (caution, I’m about to use an old fashion theological word) BORN AGAIN.  We are born again into newness of life by the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We’ve totally missed God’s standard of good and can never attain it on our own except through Jesus Christ.

2. CRY BABIES – Miles did lots of crying the first year of his life but mainly because it was his way of communicating there was a need.  A baby’s life is full of needs and when one need is fulfilled there is another need waiting.  Sometimes when he cries it’s because of frustration and the more crying he does the more frustrated dad and son become (sidenote: I’ve learned a great deal of patience in fatherhood too)!  The older Miles gets the more mature his communication is becoming.  He is learning to say words or point to what he needs rather than throwing himself into fit.  (He still does every now and then but I’ll get to that in the discipline point)

- I wonder if we would stop going to God as cry babies and just communicate with him, maybe it would take some of the frustration out of our life.  Maybe we’ve been praying to Him more like he’s a genie trying to get our 3 wishes rather than a good Father that knows what’s best for us.  We are in no position to twist His arm or to make Him perform magic tricks for us.

3. DOES “NO” MEAN ANYTHING – “No Miles”, “You shouldn’t do that Miles” is something I find coming out of my mouth often.  My intentions are not to prevent him from experience fun, but spare him the pain of falling on his head.  However, he likes to do dangerous things like jump of couches, climb on bar stools to get on top of the counter, lay on his back in the river without any swimming skills.

- While his sense of adventure is healthy and normal, unfortunately for me as dad, I have to give him boundaries and sometimes make him wait until he’s older to do certain things.  Many times we get ourselves in positions that are uncomfortable and regrettable because they were fun at the time only to end in a negative way.  1 John 5:3 says “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” Psalms 119 is a whole chapter on the love for God’s commandments and laws and has crazy verses like:

- verse 16 – I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

- verse 18 – Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

- verse 20 – My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.

SAY WHAT?  Consumed with a longing for rules?  I’ll be honest and say I’m maybe not to that point, but I do know that the commandments are not God’s evil way of making life miserable, instead we find protection and blessing in obeying them.  Jesus would say that true followers and those that really love him are those who keep his commandments (John 14:15).  People listen to people they trust.  So, we should just listen to him when he say’s “no” and stop being babies.  He’s dad and He knows best.