Cutting Out the Middle Man

"The child sees things as the Father means him to see them, as he thought of them when he uttered them. For God is not only the Father of the child, but of the childhood that constitutes him a child, therefore the childness is of the divine nature."

-George MacDonald

{The Prayer - William-Adolphe Bouguereau}

I have a 21-month-old niece who lives in the same house as I do. Her name is Debbie. Recently, she has just begun talking. Our conversations recently have gone something like this - I've noticed the pattern:

{example 1}
Me: Did you do a big poo-poo?
Debbie: Big-big. Jesus. helps.
Me: Jesus helped you?
Debbie: Okay! {her "yes"}

{example 2}
Me: Auntie needs to put ointment on Mr. P's eyeballs. {Mr. P is my pug, with whom Debbie "helps" me.}
Debbie: Boo-boo. P. Eyeballs!
Me: He needs his medicine, doesn't he?
Debbie: Jesus. Better!
Me: Jesus will make his eyeballs better?
Debbie: Okay!

{example 3}
Me: The flowers are so pretty.
Debbie: Pretty-pretty. {similar to the mouse in Cinderella!}
Me: Who makes the flowers grow?
Debbie: Jesus!

And so on... and on... and on. :-)

You know, often the word "simple" garners a poor reputation. But I, for one, desire the simple faith of the child. Debbie sees all around her - everyday body functions, healing, flowers growing - as coming directly from Jesus. She doesn't dispute the "secondary causes," but they don't make a difference in her calculations.

Whether Mr. P gets medicine or not, to Debbie, the healing comes straight from Jesus, as directly as it did for the woman who touched His garment. {Mark 5:25-29}

Whether her grammy puts extra effort into the flowerbeds or not is of no real concern to Debbie; the growing comes from the hand of Christ.

Whether her intestines induced her "poo-poo -- big-big!" or not? What does it matter? Jesus is the One who caused it.

If a butterfly hatches from its cocoon, Debbie knows - believes completely that Jesus gave it wings.



I would like to cut those secondary causes out of my calculations {I didn't say out of my knowledge}, for I often {in my heart} consider them of more bearing on the situation than the Jesus Who bid the waters to be still. And Who {still} sees every sparrow fall.

What about you, dear readers?