Helping God

I come from a great big family that delights in its children. Grandmas and grandpas, moms and dads, aunts and uncles, all pace their steps and plan their days around children. It is not uncommon at a family gathering to watch a circle of giggling aunts snapping pictures as a baby reacts to her first taste of ice cream or to see an older teenage cousin leading the younger ones through the trail in the woods. Dads with important jobs bring along a little future man so he can learn to work. Over on the couch an aunt and niece have their heads bent close together as the girl learns to crochet. Pictures of children line the walls and fill up cell phone memory space. Grandpa’s wallet is about to burst – not with money, but with pictures of grandkids.

I remember realizing years ago as my 3-year-old niece Megan was “helping” me bake cookies that a child’s help is very similar to the way I “help” God. She stood on a stool because she was too short to reach the counter. There was white flour all over her little chocolate brown face (and I am pretty sure she snuck cookie dough every time my back was turned). The cookies she rolled were inconsistently sized and more similar to lumpy globs than to neat balls. The process took twice as long and the result was half as productive as if I had done it by myself. But oh, what I would have missed! The delightful chatter, her sweet smile and the joy of snuggling as we ate warm cookies and read a book together were far more precious than a tray of perfectly formed cookies.

So I’m pretty sure I don’t need to worry when God calls me to help him with something. I don’t have to get it right, I don’t even have to know what I’m doing. I just have to listen as he guides me and know that he is delighting in me. It’s not about the product – what great things I can accomplish for God. It’s about the process…the knowing and being and togetherness. And when I snuggle up with him at the end of a day, my peace and joy come not from knowing I did amazing things for him, but in knowing how very much I am loved. As I drift to sleep, I rest in awe that the God of the universe would slow his steps to my little pace just to listen to my chatter and love my heart.