Invisible Guidance

Walter, Tommy and Janelle Stoermer

     "We really enjoyed the movie," I told my husband Walter.  My in-laws were visiting us from California.  They had come to visit with their new grandson Tommy.  Their presence had given us the chance to go see a movie we had hoped to see (the movie itself plays no part in this post, but in case you wondered, it was Jesus Revolution.  I can write a whole post about that movie.  All I will say here is that the movie was very personal to me, as it is based on real events in Southern California about twelve years before I was born, and it shaped the Christian community I grew up in).  Anyway, my husband and his father had gone to see the movie, while his mother and I played with Tommy, then we switched places.  My mother-in-law and I had really enjoyed the movie.  I couldn't wait to talk about it and sort of "debrief" about it with Walter.  

     I was met with a report that Tommy had been a typical two-year-old.  They had played with Tommy for a while, but while my husband and father-in-law had gotten into a deep theological discussion (debriefing from the movie themselves), Tommy had dumped out all the bubble bath on the floor, pulled all the toilet paper off the rolls in the bathrooms, and made a mess! Walter had cleaned up the mess, and put Tommy in his room with his toys, putting up the baby gate (it was almost Tommy's bedtime, and they wanted to just let him play until I got home, and our family could do our nightly ritual of bedtime story and prayer together). 

     "But he's been playing.  He's fine," I was told.  I decided to check on this.  

     I went upstairs to Tommy's room.  He was perfectly safe, and very happy.  That's what counts.  I was met by a delightfully beaming child, surrounded by every toy he owned, dumped out on the floor.  He had pulled off his pants and diaper, and had done number two on the carpet.  He giggled, then said, "Ewww!"  He always says, "Ewww!" when something yucky happens.  I was so stressed by the site, but I couldn't afford to wait.  First order of business was to clean up the BM mess, and get Tommy cleaned up.  That accomplished (it took longer than just "that accomplished" but I'm moving past it in the narrative!), I looked at the room covered with toys.  I wished I was Mary Poppins, and could just sing "Spoonful of Sugar" and snap my fingers and the room would clean itself!  

      In the first several weeks of being a foster (soon-to-be-adoptive) mother, I have learned so much about the Lord and His love for us.  Like Tommy, I have faced stressful situations, sometimes of my own making, and sometimes just where the buck stopped with me.  Looking at the mess is overwhelming!  But it was my responsibility to clean it up.  Or was it?  

     I knew Tommy was not capable of cleaning up the mess if I were to just tell him, "Pick this all up" and leave him to it.  He might pick up a few toys, but he is incapable of doing the whole thing without guidance.  So I sat down with him.  "Tommy, pick up that block," I said, pointing at a specific block.  He obediently did so.  "Now put it in the box," I pointed at the correct box.  Again he obeyed.  I did this for a while, and he was obediently picking up, but doing it that way would take all night.  So as Tommy picked up his toys, one by one, I started also picking up toys with him, putting them away.  I wasn't doing the job for him.  I was doing it with him.  He didn't even catch that I was quietly doing it too.  He was just focused on the job he had been given.  In the end, I picked up well over half of the mess, but he worked the whole time, thinking he was doing it all.  Walter saw his parents to their hotel for the night, then came back and also helped.  When we all finished, Tommy yelled "Yea!" and clapped.  Walter read him his bedtime story, and we all prayed.

     I learned a lot about Christ through this experience.  I don't visually see Him working with me as I follow His leading, but He is.  God doesn't just give orders and watch me do it.  He does it with me.  He does much more than I do.  First Thessalonians 5:24 says, He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.  Likewise, Ephesians 3:20 says, Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.  God works in and through us, but He also works around us, when we don't even know it.  He wants us to succeed, and He helps us.  He guides us.  And ultimately, He does it!  We aren't really doing anything.  God is doing the work, and He calls us to work with Him!  It is encouraging to know I work with a loving God.