April 6 - "Developmental Task"

 

I love it when children come of age.  No, I'm not talking about puberty.  I'm talking about achieving developmental task accomplishment.  In this case … acquiring that elusive talent of passing the buck.  Some never quite seem to catch on.  Others become so adept at it that after they are through with an explanation, all you can do is wonder what hit you. 

 

Cailyn showed off her latest level of skill development yesterday.  And remember, she is an only child, so she has no one to learn from, except maybe her Daddy and Mommy.  Not that they ever used such wily tactics when they were little ones, of course.  She was spending the day with us while her Mom was in class and then studying and her Dad was at work.  Chris had just spent the morning cleaning house for our Life Group that meets here on Thursday nights.  As Chris rounded the corner she saw, to her surprise and anguish, a floor littered with fifty or sixty children's books strewn about in haphazard fashion.  Now Cailyn had been displaying some signs of little people stress all day – brief outbursts of frustration or … how does "determination" sound?  I was at my desk working on the Maundy Thursday lesson when I heard the following interchange. 

Chris: "Who threw all these books on the floor?"

No answer was immediately forthcoming, so she tried again.

"Cailyn, who threw all these books on the floor?"

That got her attention.  Ah, and a response.

Cailyn: "Caleb did it."

After a brief pause, during which I was almost certain I heard a muffled chuckle:

Chris: "But Caleb is not here.  He's in San Antonio."

Instantly, with no hint of hesitation, came the confident reply:

Cailyn: "No, he's here.  Caleb did it."

I don't know how well Chris did at stifling the chuckle that time, because I was working at holding back one of my own"

Chris: "Well, where is Caleb?"

Again, no hesitation.  It was if she had worked out the scenario with every possible question that her Nani might ask:

Cailyn: "He's hiding in the bedroom."

OK.  That was all I could handle.  I laughed out loud.  Chris lasted a bit longer than I did, having been steeled, no doubt, by the previous hours of encounter with the young padawan who is evidently rapidly becoming epitome of strong will.  With the combined encouragement and active involvement of all three of us (Caleb not included), we did get the books picked up.  But I am left with one final, haunting question …

Josh and Christi, do you know where your youngest son is?

 

1 Peter 2:9-10 says, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

 

Father, watch over our little guys as they work out all the developing you have created them to do.  Amen.