She was so happy of her growing collection that when we had some friends over she took them into her room to show them. Being a good little hostess herself, she climbed up on her dresser so she could point them out better.
We were visiting in the living room a few minutes later when we heard the crash. Little brother wanted to have a better look at the figurines himself, so he climbed up onto the dresser after his sister left the room. He must have tried pulling up on the shelf to stand up, making it tip and causing all of the Precious Moments figurines to crash down on top of the dresser.
This happened years ago, and we still have all of the little pieces in a ziploc bag, not sure if it would be worth the trouble to piece them back together, yet not willing to throw the pieces away, and tentative about spending the money it would take to replenish what was lost.
My children have never been allowed to climb on the furniture, and I wasn’t aware that they had been until this happened. What an unfortunate way to learn that lesson!
We don’t always know why something is against the rules, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be followed. My daughter didn’t cause any harm by climbing on her dresser. She didn’t fall, she didn’t break anything, she was just up and down with no consequence. She probably figured the rule must not apply because nothing was harmed. Unfortunately, it was not the case with her little brother who followed her example.
Is there some flexibility in rules? Not in my house. If it’s not okay for one, it’s not okay for all. Period.
What about God’s rules? Are there some things that are okay for some people but not for others?
"Your word is a lamp to guide my feet, and a light for my path...I have obeyed Your laws, for I love them greatly." Psalm 119:105, 167 NLT
We get so upset with God while we read and hear about all of the “Do’s and Don’ts.” We neglect to look at the bigger picture. We don’t consider the “Why’s.” A lot of the why’s are explained in the Bible, here’s one I read just this morning: Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time. (Deuteronomy 4:40)
God’s decrees and commands are for blessing those that follow them. Naturally there is a blessing that flows out of doing the right thing. It’s cause and effect. You fill up your car with gas so that it will get you where you want to go without leaving you stranded somewhere. You don’t look at your car and scoff and roll your eyes and demand that it tell you why it needs gas. You don’t refuse to fill it up because you think you have a better plan. No, you fill it up because you understand that that is how it works. The blessing that comes from this obedience is that you get to drive another x amount of miles before refueling.
If I were to explain all of the why’s to my children about all of the rules that we have in our house it would bore them to tears. I had probably told my daughter “Don’t climb on the furniture because you might fall off or break something.” She undoubtedly tested it out, and figured the rule was no good because these things didn’t happen.
We justify things like this all of the time in our own lives. While it can make sense in our own minds, it does not change what God said. Part of the reason I think God didn’t give us all of the why’s is because we could use that to find even more reasons to justify our behavior. Can we just assume that He’s saying “because I said so” and call it done?
God’s grace is huge. He does not expect or demand perfection from us. His words, spoken throughout scripture through prophets and disciples, point the way for us to go. Yes, Jesus is the only way. We are not saved by our works, but through faith. But remember the blessing in addition to salvation for following His instructions!
I was reminded of the scripture noted above about God’s word being a light to our path on my hunting trip. Jim and I were headed back to the truck one day after the sun went down. It got dark long before we made it back, so I strapped a head-lamp on (never used one of those before!) and followed Jim down a narrow trail. It was getting darker and darker, however my head-lamp was not getting brighter and brighter. In fact, it was very dim! I thought about that scripture, and the song “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” (I told you last time I had a bunch of songs in my head!) Jim was getting further and further ahead of me (as usual) and I couldn’t help but notice that his head-lamp was brighter than mine. I called up ahead, with a chuckle: “Your head-lamp is like ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ and mine’s like ‘This little light of mine…’”
I had to keep focused on the trail. There was a steep dropoff just to my right. I had to duck under branches. I had to maneuver around fallen trees. At one point I walked right up to a fallen tree with branches that were everywhere and I completely lost the path. I was tipping my head back to shine the light up and around to figure out where I was supposed to go. (Can’t go over it, can’t get under it, gotta go ‘round it!)
When we got back to the truck I hit the power switch to turn off my head-lamp. I was surprised when instead of turning off it got brighter. I hit the button again. Brighter again. I hit the button again. It flashed red. I hit it again and it turned off. I had been using the dimmest setting on the head-lamp! I just figured it was on or off! I shook my head and found it annoying yet funny that I had such a silly and unnecessarily dim walk through the woods.
So here’s where I’m going with all of this: I would have gotten back to the truck regardless of circumstances. I would have done it, no question. But in order to get there and stay out of as much danger or injury as possible, I had to follow the path and use that little light of mine. If I had known the lamp better, it would have shone brighter for me and I could have gone along a lot smoother.
God’s word and His rules aren’t to make us stumble. They are to guide us and keep us away from what He sees that could harm us.