“See my tricks, Dad!”
He has a new toy…
A yo-yo…
And he’s learned how to do tricks with it…
“He just put on a show for me,” says his mom.
“I’ll put on a show for you, Dad!”
He steps out in front of his parents and his brother and sister…
“Here we go!”
“Watch my tricks, Dad.”
A deep breath…
He closes his eyes for just a second…
Then opens them wide and raises his hand…
But he jerks the string too quickly and the yo-yo bounces off to the side.
He tries another trick.
Another failure.
“It’s OK,” says his dad. You can do it. Try again.”
Another deep breath…
Another moment of eyes-closed concentration.
Slowly, smoothly, he sends the yo-yo down its string…
Then pulls it back in one smooth motion…
Now he throws it in a large arc…
“Around the world!” he shouts as the yo-yo swings in a perfect circle.
One trick after another…
Each one a success.
“See, Dad,” he calls… “See all my tricks!”
The father smiles quietly…
Looking at more than a show of yo-yo tricks…
Looking at his son…
Looking at him grow…
Looking at him learn persistence…
Learn determination…
Learn to stay calm under pressure.
He looks at his son with more than approval for what he’s doing…
He looks at him with love…
The love of a father for his child…
Love that can’t be earned.
I watch… and wonder…
How often am I like that boy when I approach God?
Crying, “ See my tricks God! ”
“I’ll put on a show for you, God!”
” See my tricks God! “
Forgetting that it is not my tricks God desires…
It is my heart…
Love the Lord your God with all your heart …’ Mark 12:30
Forgetting in my quest to earn the approval of God…
That I already possess something far more valuable…
Something that cannot be earned…
The love of God…
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
