Tooth-ful Lesson

I want to commend my son, Edan, for allowing me, his non-dentist mother, to pull out his two front teeth. He triumphed in the area of bravery yesterday. There was a lot of back and forth wrestling, emotionally speaking, but when he finally said, “Ok,” I knew he wholeheartedly committed himself into my care. Whew.

Praise God my method worked! I popped one out with blitzkrieg force and the other took a little more tactical ingenuity. I used dental floss to lasso that sucker and yanked it out unsuccessfully at first. Oops. But my dear son still let me have a go at it. Finally it came out and he let out a nervous and delighted laugh.

“Yay! You’re the best dentist, mom!”

What a sweetie! I know Edan was terrified. I could see it in his eyes. But he told me after the ordeal he knew I could do it. If a corruptible, flawed, imperfect person like me can earn the trust of a 7 year old boy to inflict a measure of pain to get his teeth out, then why is it so hard to give our lives to an almighty, all-knowing, all-loving God?

Well, I think the answer is simple. We do not trust God because we do not know him intimately. To some he is a mere concept, or a religious figure head, distant and impersonal, or he does not exist. And until we encounter him personally, we won’t be willing to give our lives to him.

Edan knew it would hurt when I pulled out his teeth but he had faith in me because he knows me. He knows I love him. He knows I want what is best for him. Plus, I had pulled his tooth out before.

His trust was a beautiful reminder of the kind of child-like faith we should have in God. The difference is (unlike my bogus dentist self) God is perfect. God makes no false claims. He is who he says he is. He does what he says he will. What a comfort!

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:31, 32 NASB)

When I was a young girl I had a German shepherd who was very unoriginally named Princess. Whether she was purebred is highly debatable, too. But I loved her and played with her everyday. One day she went missing. We didn’t know what happened to her. And I was in tears. I was devastated.

My dad encouraged me to pray and ask God to help us find her. Up until this point I had never really had an experience that tore me up emotionally. So I begged God that she would be found.

The next morning, in faith, we decided to go looking for her. We walked up and down the winding hills of Valley Golf in Antipolo to do so.

I kept calling out her name, “Princess, Princess!”

Amazingly, during our trek up one of the steep hills I heard a yelping sound. I followed it with my parents. The yelping came from a manhole. Could this be her?! My heart was racing as I ran to the edge of the hole. And there, jumping up and down was Princess, alive and well! She must have fallen inside during one of her adventures and gotten trapped. We rescued her and brought her home.

It was an incredible faith-affirming moment for me. It left an indelible imprint on my understanding of who God is. In that instant he became personal. In that instant I knew he cared about the desires of my heart.

Since that tender age I have prayed for many things and God hasn’t always answered them with a yes. But I have believed through each trial and difficult circumstance that his character remains the same. He loves me. He is faithful. He is good. I can give my life completely to him. My future is secure no matter what happens.

I want to leave you with the best promise that God has given all of us — the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:11-13 NASB)

Do you have a hard time trusting God? Pray for an encounter with the immeasurable height, depth and breath of his love. This is a prayer God delights to answer because he wants to have a personal relationship with you!