Shown Up By A Little Girl

My wife snapped this picture on my phone without me realizing it. She has ninja-like skills when it comes to snatching my phone. Why? Just to cheat on Hanging with Friends. Pretty lame I know, and also not entirely true. However, this time I think it was because she saw something worth capturing.


On this particular morning, my youngest daughter was having surgery to get tubes in her ears. It was her second time having the procedure and it was much needed since both of her eardrums burst twice a few days before. Given our crappy first of the year, this didn't surprise us.

Let me point out some truth about the picture.

What you see to the right is an exhausted father who is worried about his daughter (even though he knows everything is going to be okay). I'm so exhausted that I was even more lazy-eyed than normal. You might also notice that I'm suffering from worship pastor envy sporting a v-neck and hoodie. No skinny jeans though. I was kind of looking left coast in that one. That's not the truth I wanted to point out though.

The truth is the princess in my lap.

Chloe Kate is three years old. She woke up and experienced a completely different world that morning. She had to wake up three hours earlier than normal. She couldn't have any food or anything to drink and if you know my girl. the first thing she wants the moment her blue eyes open is cereal (and lots of it--like, she will eat her weight in it). The nurses made her take off her warm pj's and put on a drafty, goofy looking gown. She kept asking why she had to take off her pants to get her ears fixed....good question.  She knows that she is going to get tubes in her ears, but has no idea what that means. She has no idea that in just a few moments, two nurses (shout out to my friend James Isenberg) will come and take her away from her parents to put her to sleep so someone can poke and prod in her head. No, right now she is just sitting in her daddy's lap with a smile on her face because she trusts in me, even though she doesn't completely understand the situation.

Christian, that's the kind of faith Jesus said you need.

I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it (Luke 18:17). I don't know exactly what a child-like faith looks like, but I can tell you it looks a lot like this picture. It's trusting in the fact that even when our situation and circumstances aren't familiar, God is always holding on to us...and that should bring a smile to our faces, too.