This last weekend, I was visiting some close friends (they
are practically family) who have a two–year-old son. Liam, of course, wanted to
show me his tool kit, lego blocks, and tractors. And I, of course, couldn’t say
“no.” While he was showing me his most prized possessions he started singing
the Winnie the Pooh song from the movies. But his version never ended.
As he would sing the refrain in an endless cycle:
“Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh,
A tubby, little cubby, all stuffed with fluff.
He's Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh.
A tubby, little cubby, all stuffed with fluff.
He's Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh.
A tubby, little cubby, all stuffed with fluff.
He's Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh.
A tubby, little cubby, all stuffed with fluff.
He's Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh.”
It became the song that never ends…
As I listened I could tell that he wanted to get to the end
and that he didn’t want it to keep going, but he had lost control and was stuck
in the cycle. However, his dad was also there watching. He listened, saw the
need and desire to change, then stepped in with the solution. He didn’t
interrupt the song, but instead he joined his son in singing it at just the
right time and when the hard part came he provided the transition:
“A willy, nilly silly old bear.”
Timing is everything. If the father just jumped in and told the
son that it was enough, Liam wouldn’t have learned the song. If he corrected
him at the wrong time, then Liam might have known how it ends, but he wouldn’t
know how to get from where he was to that point. In short, this moment of good
fathering struck me because it reminds me to trust in the good fathering of my
Heavenly Father.
How often are we stuck in a cycle that I don’t know how to
escape? Like Liam we can see there is a problem, but also like Liam we can’t
seem to get out on our own. We know that something needs to change, but we need
someone to show us what it is. We may be crying out to God for answers right now but he is waiting for the right
moment in the verse to join with us in song and to pull us from where we are to
where we need to go.
Post by Jeremiah Lorrig
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