Lessons Learned from my 2.5 year-old Granddaughter

(This week's article was written by my daughter, Jennifer Johnson, for sharing as a devotional with the Vista Grande Baptist Church staff where she serves as the Music Ministry Assistant. I am thankful for her willingness to let me reprint her devotional as the blog post for this week. By the way, her granddaughter is my great-granddaughter.)

Lessons Learned from my 2.5-year-old Granddaughter by Jennifer Johnson

1.      Mabel loves animals and can easily tell you what they are with one quick look – to include deer, elk, black bear, grizzly bear, mountain goat, moose and bison.  While we were on vacation to Wyoming, we spent a day in Yellowstone Park.  As we were looking at all the geysers, Mabel’s eyes got really wide and she started pointing and saying “Bison, bison!”  Sure enough, a bison was crossing the path in front of us.  She was absolutely amazed!!!  We took all the pictures we could and then continued on our walk.  Shortly thereafter, Mabel had stopped again and seemed intrigued by something else along the path.  This time it was a line of ants walking along the path.  Her amazement seemed very similar between the giant bison and the tiny ants.  When was the last time we stopped and really looked at God’s creation?  How amazing is it that He created something as tiny as an ant and as large as a bison and every size in between?  We look at Pikes Peak and are in awe of its beauty.  Do we look at a grain of sand in the same way? Genesis chapter One gives us the breakdown of everything God made – which is everything!  There was absolutely nothing on earth until God spoke it into being – from the tiny grains of sand to the highest mountains; from the tiniest animal to the largest.  John 1:3 reminds us that “all things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”  Take some time to notice the intricacies of God’s creation – the fine details of a flower, a tiny bug, a newborn baby.

2.      Throughout our week together, I noticed a couple of other things that Mabel does that leads me to lessons 2 and 3.  First, she is very aware when someone leaves the room or the area where we are all hanging out.  Anytime someone would leave, Mabel would make sure to let us all know who left and that they would be back.  She had full confidence that mom, dad, grandma, whoever would definitely come back.  She was full of hope and anticipation.  This got me thinking about our confidence, hope and anticipation of Christ’s return.  How often are we telling others that Jesus is gone for now but will return?  His disciples even had a hard time understanding this and telling others.

3.      Lesson 3 continues with this same idea.  When the “missing” person would return, Mabel would let everyone in the room know that the person was back!  She was so excited and almost relieved.  How do we feel about Christ’s return?  Are we ready to proclaim His return to everyone around us?  Do we wait with anticipation and excitement? 

4.      Since our vacation, Mabel has developed a love of gifts.  She loves to receive gifts and then share with everyone all about her gift and who gave it to her.  I recently gave her and her brother some new pajamas.  She had to show them all to her mom, dad and gramps.  She was so excited that Grandma had given her this gift.  She was even excited that her brother received a gift also.  God gave us the greatest gift in His Son.  This should be the most talked about gift we have ever received.  We should want to tell everyone about it.  We didn’t even do anything to deserve it.  So why are we not telling more people about this amazing gift?  Probably 2 of the most memorized verses say it all:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

This is our free gift. What are we to do with it?

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Matthew 28:19