Snotty Noses

I just spent a few minutes in the nursery. While there God reminded me of something.

Let me back up. Every Wednesday I float around the building and just talk to people. It gives me a chance to get to know the people here better and a chance to experience what is happening in each of the ministries and classes. I pop in and say "hi" to the classes and chat with the teachers.

Tonight, I walked into the nursery and there were 7 children in there. I think 5 of them under the age of one. The three ladies in there each had one that they were tending to and one more was on the floor crying. Not screaming, but crying. I picked her up for a minute, wiped her nose, and walked around with her. To be honest, I haven't held a young one like that for more than a minute in quite a while. I definitely haven't wiped a snotty nose that wasn't mine in a looooong time. My girls are old enough to wipe their own. Anyway, she was still fussing so I gave her a bottle and walked around with her some more. While she was drinking I looked down at her and the thought crossed my mind about how God takes care of us. This little girl is fussy, not just because she was hungry, but she has had an ear infection lately as well. She doesn't feel good. This is hard enough for an adult to deal with, almost impossible for an infant.

As we walk through our daily routines we have moments and circumstances and times we go through that just have us out of sorts. We don't know how to handle it. It's not that we are being immature or are wrong in any way, it is just where we are at the moment. The little girl tonight wasn't being unreasonable or immature, she was acting appropriately for her age and situation. In our journey with God, we will have those times that we end up not knowing what to do with ourselves and our noses are snotty and we don't know what we need. God does. He picks us up, wipes off our noses, and gives us what we need.

He does this because He loves us. He isn't offended at our imperfections or our situation. He isn't upset by our condition. He doesn't blame us. He cares for us. He holds us.

Now, there are times when the situation is our fault and we do have the ability to do at leats something about it. That isn't what I am talking about. There are also times when it is just what we are dealing with at that the point of our journey.

God loves each of us, snotty noses and all.