July 20, 2008

Tunnel Vision

We moved BB to a toddler bed Friday night. I hadn't originally planned on moving him to a toddler bed until he started climbing out of his crib. However, I found a gently used car toddler bed at Goodwill that only needed a mattress and the board that goes under the mattress. Both items were easily scavenged from the crib, and after a thorough cleaning by DH (thank you!), we were good to go.
BB didn't quite know what to make of his big boy bed at first. Previously, we would put BB down for the night in his crib and put lots of toys in his crib for him to play with until he fell asleep. He typically would throw out most of his toys immediately and then talk to himself for a few minutes and conk out. With his new bed, however, there was no need for us to supply toys for him to play with. We placed him in his bed, gave him his stuffed cars, and left the room. BB howled and cried for his toys. He didn't figure out that he could get out of his bed and get anything that he wanted all by himself.
After a few minutes of fussing, we went back into his room and showed him that he could get in and out of his bed by himself and that he could get to everything in his room. He thought this was great fun, and played in his room for quite a while before he feel asleep.
When this first was happening Friday night, I thought it was funny that BB didn't realize that he could get out of his bed on his own and get his own toys. But then I started thinking about it and I realized that a lot of people are probably this way about God.
Before we come to know God, we are all in our own little cages. We get used to being trapped in our cage. We may sometimes try to get out, only to fall back inside. Toys (temptations?) are brought to us to keep us occupied so we won't fuss about being in our cage. Then God comes along and dismantles our cage. He places us in our "big kid bed" that allows us freedom.
However, we are used to our cage. Even when we are no longer bound, we think we are stuck. We cry that we are trapped, helpless, until God comes and shows us that in Him there is freedom. With Him, we are no longer confined to a cage. We can move about as free people. Even better, we can get our own toys. We don't have to depend on what someone else thinks will amuse us or what they say we can play with. We discover that there are even more opportunities for fun and that these options are more exciting than what we had before.
This isn't a perfect analogy, but I found it interesting.

2 comments:

  1. I loved this analogy! True freedom comes from knowing Christ.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My daughter stayed in her big girl bed for almost a full year before realizing she could get out. It is interesting isn't it. Good analogy :)

    ReplyDelete

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