July 31, 2017
Filling Big Shoes
We are always trying to be like someone. Lucas is two. He is always trying to do “like Daddy” or “like Becky” (what he calls Rebeccah sometimes) or “like you do.” (that can be anyone) When Daddy got his hair cut, Lucas wanted “Daddy hair.” When Jillian is coloring, Lucas wants to “color like big me.” When Christina is cooking bacon – BACON! Lucas pulled out the bacon from the refrigerator before Christina had finished putting the pan on the stove! He was jumping around, yelling “BACON! My BACON!” (We’ve never seen him this excited over food since the last night we made popcorn.) After discovering that the pan was too hot for him to play with the bacon, he ran through the house telling everyone “Tina making my BACON!” and jumped on Daddy yelling, “BACON! Me eat BACON DADDY!”
Although we girls laugh, I see this passion for food rather neat. Lucas does everything with 110% excitement and passion. He likes watching Wild Kratts. When that comes on he jumps up and down and yells, “YEAH! Animal movie!” (Actually, that can be any well-done nature documentary that shows actual animals – I can’t wait to show him “A Zebra in the Kitchen!”) He dances with joy when he’s happy. He wants to be like everyone around him.
We were getting ready for a date one night and Louis set his Sunday shoes down in Lucas’ reach. (Lucas had a pair of black dress shoes that looked like Daddy’s.) Lucas climbed into them and said, “my Daddy’s shoes! My shoes!” He walked around the house for a while telling the girls “Me Daddy in Daddy’s shoes.” Of course, they played along with this asking, “Daddy, can I go…” Lucas has learned to laugh and say “why?” with his lips stuck out.
In the way a child wants to be like their parents, grandparents, or big siblings, we should want to be more like Jesus. It may be comical for us to see a toddler in big shoes, trying to fill them, but being woefully short, but in the same way, we do not start our journey of faith fully filling the “shoes” we perceive ourselves trying to fill. We aren’t perfect. We try to walk as close as we can to Jesus. Our aim is to fill the “shoes” God has given us. Our role, our mission, our goal. Our life here is a gift and we should enjoy it with passion!
Sometimes it’s rather funny what type of thoughts I have when I watch my toddler on his exploration of life!
Thanks for reading!
Type at you later…
~Nancy Tart