A Higher Point of View

I forget the exact age to be completely honest, but when my now four year old daughter had arrived at an age where she understood my expectation that she begin to pick up after herself a little more, the Lord gave me a revelation.

She had scattered almost every toy across the living room floor in true toddler fashion. I have no problem with this since she is happy and enjoying the playtime. Still, when the time came to clean up and I gave the order, guess what she said in response...

"I can't."

Ok, at first I was taken aback. "Look kid, we both know you can pick up a thing and put it in a box. You don't want to but you definitely can." This is my train of thought in that moment anyway. I presented said thought in a gentle way to her. I expected to help her but I was determined to see the clean up command carried out. I knew she could do it.

She was not argumentative as she said again, "I can't, Mama." nor did she seem intentionally defiant. She had a look about her as though she was uncertain of what to actually do.

At this point, I got on my knees to encourage her to try anyway. As I got closer to her eye level, I looked again at her mess. Then it hit me! The mess looks way bigger from her angle. Goodness, I bet that did feel like I was giving her an impossible task that evening. To me it was an easy sweep. To my small child, it was a magnificent task that she did not believe herself to be able to tackle on her own. She certainly could. I knew it. But she needed me to help her anyway. She needed a higher point of view.

I wonder how many times the Lord and I have had such an experience. I am sure that I have made a mess that seemed like an impossible thing to fix but God saw something simple. He still chose to help me because He totally understands that I have a much smaller view of things while He sees the big picture. I need His higher point of view and I had to literally get down on my knees to be able to see it more clearly.

There is no mess that can't be cleaned up and no matter how big that mess may grow, I will help my children. God will always help His children. I pray these seemingly mundane moments will grant glimpses of God's goodness as my family and I learn together. I pray we all continue to reach for God’s higher point of view.

My daughter and I cleaned the mess together, one toy at a time.