Fried Chicken and God's Tenderness
Yes, fried chicken actually taught me something once. It was Andrew’s birthday. He was now a two-year-old! Rachel made him some of his favorite foods that day and at one point he was starting to eat a chicken leg. Unfortunately, he started to attack the big end of the leg, and two-year-old teeth just can’t do much with chicken bone!
I saw what needed to happen. I held the chicken leg up to his little mouth and became his rotisserie machine, rotating it to where the meat was easier to eat. He did not thank me; I think it annoyed him a little. But he got to eat chicken instead of bone that way, and that was good.
I suddenly saw myself as a two-year-old before God. He is tender and patient with me, and he wants me to get some nourishment. Sometimes he steps in, even when I think I’m doing all right on my own as I bite into a bone. I need help, even when I don’t know I need help! Often, when I do not know how he is working, I am being helped by God.
I’m amazed by–and blessed by–the tenderness and patience of God. I rejoice because of “the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven…to guide our feet into the path of peace,” (Luke 1:78-79). I’m thankful that “when the kindness and love of God appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life,” (Titus 3:4-7).
I’m thankful for precious moments with my children and how, through them, God sometimes lets me catch a glimpse of his heart.