Lately Maisie has been smiling a lot…if we look at her and smile and talk expressively then she starts to work her face into a grin…the cutest grin in the world might I add. There is something about when she smiles that makes the rest of our world just seem to stop. I can’t explain it. There have been times when we have been watching a tv show and we’ll catch her staring at us with a huge smile on her face…at that moment it doesn’t matter what is going on the screen, her gummy smile is a million times more captivating. There is a deep satisfaction in knowing that our baby is happy…that she is enjoying life.

As a believer that Jesus teachings bring us joy in this life…I must believe that God also finds joy when we enjoy the life he has graced us with. One of my favorite passages in the Bible says, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13) The ‘smiles’ of our lives are all gifts that He has given us that He finds pleasure in…In effect, God has given us gifts that we enjoy, but He enjoys seeing us have joy.

As I was writing this, Jen handed Maisie to me. When she looked at me she smiled. This gave me a deep sense of joy and gratitude…and in this God finds pleasure.

As you can probably tell from the title, this won’t be the funniest thing I’ve ever written! But a thought I’ll at least chew on.

When I was growing up I experienced the same amount of sadness that most kids feel. The death of grandparents. My group of friends breaking up as our lives went different ways. Problems with girls…etc. For some reason, whenever I was sad, my dog knew. She would come to where I was sitting and put her little black head on my knee and stare off to the side as if the eye contact would just be too much. Ella is a good dog.

But babies are different than dogs…I’m coming to learn. Apart from not pooping in the back yard, they don’t detect sadness in the same way. Today was not a day where I experienced bundles of happiness. That’s ok as happiness comes and goes. But I was a bit sad for some reason.

As I was holding Maisie, her little body screaming in my arms, I asked her, “Do you care that Daddy is sad?”

She just screamed some more.

Then I said, “You’re too all about yourself to realize that I am even sad.”

It was in this moment that I realized that there are times in my life when I am too much about myself to realize the emotions that God must have when He looks over His creation. Sure, it’s not always like this, and God, in some way, probably can experience a mix of emotions at the same time in a way that I can’t understand. But in a time with wars being fought for power, hunger being ignored by the healthy, poverty being forgotten by the rich, dictators being hung for the world to see, the environment being destroyed by greed, etc…I can’t imagine how God must feel…and how I am all too often all about myself to even realize it.

There is something that babies do that I think only parents can be ok with…well there may be many things, but one thing in particular. It has happened to me quite a few times recently, with the inspiration for this post coming as I was leaning in to steal a kiss from my little Maisie. This is spit-up.

For some reason her little tummy has not wanted to hang on to all that she has eaten and it has loved to come up while I am am burping her. Last night I had a feeling that one was coming so I put a burp cloth in front of her and…I was right. She spit up. But my arm was in front of her mouth…Two night ago Jen was burping her in bed and I had that feeling. So I said…Jen put a burp cloth in front of her. Moments after I said this it happened, but with such force that it leaped over the cloth onto…ding, ding, ding…ME. The aforementioned inspiration for this post came when I was leaning in for a kiss. Guess what I got? That’s right. Spit up on the mouth.

I am prone to ‘spitting up’ myself, but for some reason this didn’t even phase me. I laughed…after wiping it off of course. I was able to take this because Maisie is my daughter. It didn’t make me mad. It didn’t make me love her less. It did make me wish that it didn’t happen. It does make me wonder what’s up with all of her spit up. But even getting it on/in my mouth doesn’t change my love for her in the slightest bit.

I started thinking about this in terms of me being a child of God’s. I know that I have spit up on Him too many times to count. God can handle the messiness of our lives. Even when we try to hide it from Him it seems as though he seeks out our mess to help clean it. It is as if God wants us to take Him our messes so that we can deal with them together. Reminds me of the book of Psalms in the Bible. I think that there is much freedom to be found with returning to childlikeness in our relationships with God. Where there is an uncontrollable response to get what’s making us upset out and into God’s hands to help us deal with life. He can do it. God can handle life.

The other day I was craving vegetables, so I cooked up some broccoli for myself. It was so delicious…While I was eating it I wanted to share it with somebody and Maisie was the only person around. I thought “I bet she would really like this.” So I fed her a bite of my broccoli. She had a hard time with this at only 4 weeks old…because she doesn’t have any teeth yet she couldn’t chew it. She had a hard time swallowing it because she doesn’t do any other whole food yet. Then who knows what it did as it cycled its way through her body…I thought, “It’s good for me so it should be good for her too!”

Ok…so I really didn’t feed her any broccoli! That is certainly for analogy purposes only…but if you were thinking…”Is he serious?” then you get the analogy.

It’s amazing to me how Maisie is perfectly capable of living entirely of off milk. She needs no meat, cheese, vegetables, or fruit. All of these can all be good for a person, but not for a baby. She needs one thing and one thing only: milk. From this, her little body gets all the nutrition it needs to grow at a rate that she will never grow at again in her life. This liquid gives her all the nutrients that she needs to help her bones to grow, her sight to come into focus, her muscle fiber to develop, her heart to beat…This is amazing to me.

I hesitate to draw my conclusions to any of my Babies & Spirituality posts as I think that we’ll all see something a bit different in them…so I’ll keep it short each time. Also, if you have something to add or saw this in a different way, please post it!

There is only one thing that a person needs when they begin (and finish) a relationship with God: To be connected to Jesus and stay close to Him. Many times as believers we want to (and should) share with others our convictions or what we find spiritually satisfying or fulfilling. Yet I think we need to give room for the reality that God works in different people at different times, in different ways, and at different paces…and He knows best. While broccoli may be good for me, it’s not for Maisie at this time in her life…I know I’ll be making her eat it one day though! Some questions or topics that are challenging and healthy for me may only prove to be a distraction or unhealthy to someone else. Even though each of us need spiritual nutrition God knows best as to who needs what kind and when. Even if we think that another person is appears to be getting a ridiculous amount of nourishment, if their lives don’t grow up, and produce works of the Spirit then they are only pretending. The ONLY proof we have that milk is truly what Maisie needs is that fact that she is growing. She’s already gained over two pounds and has grown 2.5 inches! The only proof that we can have as to how God is working in the life of another is the fruit that their life produces.

I’ve started a new category…called…you guessed it: Babies and Spirituality. For some reason God talks to me through seemingly normal, everyday things. At this point in my life babies are on the mind and God has been using my musings about Maisie’s little life to tell me things about Him, the Church, and following Jesus. Some of them funny, yet some fairly convicting to myself! I’m looking forward to sharing fatherhood and discipleship with whomever is reading….talk to you soon. Justin