These words are directives in our lives that we probably haven’t heard since we were children. Taught to us by our parents to protect us, we teach them to our children, as a way to protect them. They are meant to be a warning, a heads-up that if we are not careful, there could be danger up a head. They prepare us for danger, even when we cannot see it.
I truly believe that there are life lessons in every situation, if we would just pay attention, and I think we miss very significant warnings because we have no expectation. What have you been waiting for that you may have missed? What have you been looking for that you gave up on too soon? What have you not found, because you didn’t look for it?
My little big boy, Mason, is growing up so fast. Born at the height of these Covid times, he is now two years old, and brilliant beyond his years. I marvel at how smart he is at just two. He pays attention to things that you don’t even know he’s listening to, and he does things that you would not expect from a two year old.
He’s our little big boy, affectionately named by his grandfather, because we now have two grandsons. Terrence, Jr., our older grandson just turned twelve. He’s big boy and is leaving quite a legacy for little big boy; and little big boy is here for the challenge. One day when Mason was home from Philadelphia, we three, my two big boys and I, went out for a walk. We were just about to cross the street, when little big boy stopped immediately, and yelled, “A car is coming!”
I live on a dead-end street and if you come down my block to the end there is no way out, except to turnaround and go back. But we heeded his warning and we stopped, looked, and listened. We saw the cars that he saw were a block away, but even at such a great distance, he knew there was danger, and a warning was necessary. I marveled at the lesson.
What I learned from him that day is that danger is lurking even at a distance, and even if it’s not apparent. A block away he saw cars moving, and although not in our direction, he was on the alert. Sometimes we don’t see the danger because we miss the warning signs, and there is no expectation of what we cannot see, especially when we walk by sight.
Life lessons are all around us if we would just be on the alert, even in the smallest things. A few Sunday mornings ago, my husband and I were on our way to church, and I chose to wear my slides in the car, and bring my dress shoes for the day to change into before entering the service. When we got there, I kicked off my slides and put on my church shoes, and that was that. We had a great morning Worship, like we always do. The Word was rich, the choir was excellent, and when it was over it was time to go. Getting back into the car, I looked to put my slides on for the drive home, and could not find one of them. Looking everywhere, under the seat, behind the seat and everywhere else, I could only find one shoe. “O, well,” is my answer to everything and this was no different. I’d just get another pair.
It made no sense to me, but my husband suggested that the shoe must have fallen out of the car when I got out. Wouldn’t I have seen it? I shrugged it off as one of life’s mysteries and decided it was no great loss and one that I could live with, but he insisted on going back to where he let me out of the car, just to see. Surely by now, after almost two hours, what are the chances that the shoe would be there?
He was determined, and I had no expectation. So we get there and right by the curbside, perhaps run over more than a few times by the traffic, was the shoe. It is still mangled, and I like these shoes. I keep them because I am reminded, by this experience, that when there is no expectation we give up too soon. We stop believing. We stop seeking. We stop trusting. We stop asking.
When we get into the habit of not expecting anything, we lose sight of the One who is protecting us, and providing for us. We lose faith, and we fall away. Pastor has taught us that, “Faith is the intellectual and volitional response of the soul to the truth about God as it is revealed by The Holy Spirit.”
It takes faith to believe in something, and certainly in someone, that you cannot see. Pastor has said, “Mature faith always goes after God Himself; not His stuff.” Living by faith means living life boldly, even blindly and without apology, and with every expectation to believe God, as He has revealed Himself to us. No further evidence is needed.
We can trust that God invites us into His work not because He needs us, but because we need Him. It is through our prayers, and our diligent seeking of Him that we are reminded of how much we need Him, His work around us, and His unlimited guidance over us. Don’t ignore the warning signs. Sometimes they are sent to us by God to test our resolve. Expectation gives birth to our faith.