I’m not a parent yet, so when it comes to learning some of the lessons that parents learn, it’s usually through being a pet owner. For those who don’t know, my wife and I are the proud caretakers of a little guinea pig named Chewie who’s three and a half years old. He’s a spunky little spoiled furrball, but more loveable than any pet I’ve ever had or known before him. My most recent lesson was experienced during the revisitation of a favorite activity of little Chewie’s…
I believe it was earlier this year when we began occasionally letting the little guy run around on our carpeted office floor. It’s good exercise for him, he has a blast, and it’s ridiculously cute to watch him running and skipping around joyfully, all the while chattering to himself about only God knows what. But to keep him out of trouble, we have a small little fence that we use to keep him away from small spaces and wires he could nibble on. The funny thing is, early on in this new world exploration of his, he managed to get behind my desk to where a wealth of random, unorganized wires were well out in the open and free for the chewing. I caught him just in time before he could do any damage to himself or the appliances and returned him to his safe caged-in area. Since this incident, however, Chewie has become completely fascinated with this area of the room — often trying desperately to find a way outside of his little pen to get back there. Perhaps he thinks it’s some kind of magical haven – a guinea pig eutopia (haha!), but he has no idea that it’s not the best place for him to venture to. Sadly, it’s often the same way with us and God.
Many times in life, we’ll be told — whether by parents, God, superiors, etc — where we should not go or what we should not do in attempts to keep us out of trouble and/or out of harm’s way. However, we either don’t believe the intentions are pure, or we just become so fixated by what we cannot have — this forbidden fruit, so to speak — that we want it simply because we want to know why we can’t have it. It’s a problem that has plagued mankind since the dawn of time.
It’s unfortunate, really. God calls us to be holy — not just because sin goes against everything God IS… hence the reason for His Son dying in our place for our sins so we can commune with Him and eventually each spend eternity with Him — but because it’s for our own good and we were created in His likeness! Just as a parent wants the best for their child and to protect them by asking them to wear a coat in cold or rainy weather, drive safely, buckle up, not run with scissors, eat healthy food (or for a pet owner not to allow a little furrball to run into an area where it could be harmed), God wants to keep us safe… and righteous. He calls us to be obedient first and foremost to His will and instruction (and He’s given us an entire book to go on). So… have you been trying desperately to venture into territories God is trying to keep you from for your own good?