"If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?" Matthew 8:12
OF ALL THE WONDERFUL opportunities that merit my time ("The 99"), fixing a leaky bathroom sink is not one of them ("The 1"). Over the past few days, I'm into 4 hours just to discover the culprit and attend to the fix: A little piece of plastic. Something that couldn't possibly cost more than a couple cents. Of course, discontinued.
AS WITH ALL THINGS, this seemingly inconsequential thing has been an occasion of reflection. If not ever-deeper conversion. I've become mindful of valid criticism our children have at times shared about our parenting: We were not as affirming and attending to the positive (The 99) as we were to the negative (The 1).
Fellow mortal parents, let's face it: Which typically commands our attention and attitude, the bedroom that looks like a warzone (The 1), or the consistently cleaned-up family room, kitchen, basement, and yard (The 99)? Consider: Does this not similarly play out in academics, athletics, work... and even the important, underlying faith, attitudes, and character?
Now I'm not saying we ought not appropriately attend to The 1. In fact, if we are following Jesus, more than popes, pastors and principals we parents have been entrusted above all to shepherd them. We need to attend to the ways they've wandered off and shepherd them back.
I'm raising the question of what most constitutes the atmosphere. The relationship. In an ongoing way. (If we asked them, what would they say?) I'm suggesting that...
TOO MANY OF OUR HOMES ARE TOO HEAVILY DOMINATED BY "THE 1 PERSPECTIVE," which often subverts us from THE 99 PERSPECTIVE. As children, we may have forgotten what it was like. As we were so malleable. The power of our parents' voices. How they spoke so directly to our souls. How it forged our identities. Perhaps too many of us still carry wounds from the same. If you're a parent, there's no doubt we've inflicted the same. But consider this: What if it were the other way around? What if, attendant to the grandeur of God's goodness in our children, their very nature... the innumerable ways they're "found," we got better at illuminating, proclaiming, and demonstrating their 99 factor? What if this colored the atmosphere? I believe their 1 would be won. In them and us!
SO I THANK GOD FOR HIS BLESSING of the broken gasket. Most every time I go into our master bathroom now and see the towel covering the crippled sink, I recognize and give thanks for The 99. That we even have a bathroom. Another sink. A working shower. Heat.
BUT ALL THE MORE DEEPLY AND PROFOUNDLY, I give thanks and praise to God for the tremendous, incredible, unsurpassed gift of each of our children. By God's design and destiny, they are each 100. Made whole and complete in baptism through Jesus Christ. Life is simply about us discovering this. Going deeper. Proclaiming it. Living it. The 99 claiming territory until we are all won by The One!
LORD GOD, YOU ARE LOVE! Thank you for designing and destining us individually and as families to be One in You. Not just part, but whole. 100%. Rehabilitate our hearts to see Your Grandeur in each of our children. Make us aware of the tremendous gift of Your Voice in us -- given to affirm, encourage, challenge, support, and ever-more forge their unsurpassed nature in You... as they do in us!
