The First Field Trip

Right about now my child is being loaded into a "coach" (small bus) and being taken by her school to a Christmas play. As I sit here, I find it hard to
concentrate on iconoclasm, puritans, or anything else I should be reading. Someone else is driving our little girl...and I'm not there! Of course, they have one chaperone for every two kids, which means someone will always have her by the hand when they are walking. But that does not completely make me feel better.
Maybe some of you parents can understand. That first permission slip you sign is a real test. "Yes, you may take this little person into whom we have put all of our energy, time, and love over the last three years and bring her with you to a show without me being present and into a situation over which I have no control." Yikes.

It makes me wonder how painful it must have been for Hannah to leave Samuel at the temple. Or was it? Are there any hands better than the Lord's? Can I hold my child tighter than He can? Do I forsee danger better than He can? Functionally, sometimes I say yes to those questions. But when I stop to think about it, I know that the Lord who gave her to us is the Lord to whom she belongs. So every day is a new exercise in surrendering to her creator and God. God has made Krisy and I stewards over this child and as stewards we protect, love, serve, and discipline. But we do not own. That is a brutal thing to say, it even puts a lump in my throat as I type it, but it is truth.

Now, on the human level, she is ours. Ours to discipline, ours to enjoy, ours to celebrate, ours to share or not share as we see fit. But from an eternal perspective, our ownership is but a shadow of the claim God has on her. I think about that sometimes when Delaney is playing or laughing or just sitting reading a book. There may very well come a day when she looks at me and says, "Daddy, He's calling me to the mission field." We would cry (as I did when I typed that one; its pretty rough at my desk right now) and gasp, but ultimately, we would once again surrender to her Lord and ours. Parenting is a strange thing from a Christian perspective. Our job is ultimately to point her beyond us. Though I am her father, we want her to love her Father more.

The field trip today is actually only going last a total of and hour and a half. But it made me think further into the future, into eternity. How comforting it is that the God that we must surrender our children to is a Father Himself. We know we can trust Him with our child because He is our Father, too.

Lord of Creation and our little girl
Who gave us the stars and her little curls
Grant us joy and the words to sing
As we give her to her God and King

Father of Glory and our little child
Who tames the sea but made her wild
Teach us to teach her by Word, wind, and waves
That Christ our Redeemer claims what He saves

Ruler of Nations and her little mind
Who establishes kings and has made her kind
Grant that we point her to stand before Thee
With Christ as her Home and her perfect plea

Tim