The Sovereignty of God for Toddlars

This last Wednesday I took Nathan(5) and Andrew(2 1/2) on a walk down to the lake a couple blocks from our house. It was rather chilly, but it was the perfect day for playing on the swings and throwing stones into the lake. Because of the drought we had this summer, our lake is really low. There's about 10-15 feet of sand on the shore that is usually completely covered in water.  We decided to walk the sandy shoreline, since usually it's all covered with water. As we were walking I noticed that Andrew kept turning toward the lake and would smile really big. Finally he turned to me and said, "Kaiya, why da lake keep following me?" I looked at the waves and couldn't help but laugh. The wind was blowing in the perfect direction, so as the waves lapped up on the sand it appeared that they were following us. We walked a little further and Nathan asked, "Kaila, how do the waves follow us?" I looked down at him and said, "Because God made the wind blow and He wanted the wind to blow this way today so that the waves would follow us and we would have so much fun looking at them." He smiled so big, grabbed my hand, and said, "That's cool!"

We had lots of fun playing at the park. They actually had a teeter totter, which personally I think I had just as much fun as they did. I haven't played on one of those in years. But, I kept thinking about the whole wave encounter and how the faith of a child works. My little five year old brother doesn't doubt or give it a second thought that God made the waves blow in his direction so that they would follow us. Nathan totally and completely trusts that God is the reason for that wind blowing. Of course there are scientific explanations that I could have told him, but he doesn't need those explanations to understand how it works. He totally trusts that God made those waves roll up on the shore to follow him.

The whole incident really made me look at my own walk and look back on how many times I have doubted God's sovereignty. It's so easy for me to complain and question God. "Why is this happening?" "Why do I feel this way?" "Why didn't this work out?" Why, why, why...... And His answer is, because He has a big picture plan in mind. Because when I feel that pain, I draw closer to Him and have more compassion on others. Because His plan is infinitely greater than I could ever imagine.

I so easily doubt God's loving sovereignty over all things. Nathan and Andrew don't doubt God's sovereignty.....not yet that is. When they hear me say that something is happening because God wanted it to happen, they completely believe it. They don't question me on it. Some people might call it being naive, but I call it child-like faith. Every day my little brothers teach me a little something. Often they teach me about my lack of patience, :-) but on Wednesday, they taught me about having faith in God and in His sovereignty. 

Andrew and Nathan at the Creation Museum.