On Being a Baby

I keep forgetting that Norah is still a baby. She walks and runs, climbs and spins, talks and sings so well that sometimes I think she’s as grown up as Anna, but she’s not. Now, she’s not an infant anymore, but she’s still a baby… (Does that make sense?) A couple of nights ago Norah woke up screaming at 2:50 AM. I went into the girls’ room and picked her up out of the crib… it must have been a bad dream because she was still asleep even though she was crying. When I held her, she got startled and woke up a little bit and then upon realizing who had her, she sleepily said, “Daddy” and held on tight. I held her for a while and then put her back down to sleep and remembered again that I was dealing with a little baby.

She might be getting bigger and stronger with more coordination and a larger vocabulary, but Norah still needs Mommy and Daddy for pretty much everything. She needs us to feed her and put clothes on her, she needs us to change her and clean up all her various messes and she needs us to read books and turn on Veggie Tales. She can’t open doors, get buckled up or brush her own teeth… and these are just some of the things she’s aware of! There are tons of things she needs us for that she has no idea even exist like maintaining our cooling unit, changing the brakes on the car and paying our property tax. She needs us so much and in the moments in which she understands this fact, she lets us know…

One time in Matthew 18 the disciples asked Jesus who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus called over a little child and had him stand among the disciples and said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

When Jesus said ‘little child,’ the word He used meant infant. He was talking about babies… maybe little toddling babies like Norah who have just recently learned to walk. Matthew says about this infant that Jesus “…had him stand among them.” I wonder if the little baby boy was holding on with his chubby little hands to the index fingers of the One who made him, trying to stand up and wobbling back and forth. Babies are so cute when they’re just learning to stand and then walk… they need someone to hold them up and they need someone to pick them up when they repeatedly fall.

We are supposed to be like little babies with our heavenly Father… trusting Him for everything, crying out to Him and letting Him take care of all our needs and leaving behind our self-dependence. Christy and I had a moment this week where we had to cry out like that. It was a problem with no apparent solution where we just decided to throw up our hands and say, “Whaaah!” We prayed together and just gave the whole thing to Him… we got to a place where we realized we were helpless and like a little infant who doesn’t know anything about their parents paying the electric bill and washing the dishes, we just said, “Father, You’re going to have to take care of all of this… we just give it to you like a couple of babies.” And guess what, He did. And I don’t know how, just like Norah doesn’t know how her mommy makes those rocking smoothies. She just knows she’s hungry and smoothies are delicious. It’s a great arrangement really… we need everything, He gives everything we need. All we have to do is be totally dependent little babies crying out to our Daddy.