by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Listening to Our Heavenly Parent

I’m not sure how this child’s shoe ended up wedged into this park bench. The bench wasn’t far from the trailhead, and the child probably walked barefoot to the car. The parent might have asked where the shoe was when they arrived home and the child responded, “I don’t know.”

The shoe doesn’t belong wedged into the bench but on the child’s foot.

“Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.”
Proverbs 1:8-9 English Standard Version

I wonder if part of the problem is that this child didn’t listen to their parents. I remember times when I didn’t listen to my dad when he encouraged me to pray for wisdom (which I seldom do). I remember my mom telling me to pick up my toys but even today, I fill up my life with piles of grown-up toys.

More importantly, I have not listened to the voice of my heavenly Parent, the God who loves me both with fatherly wisdom and motherly compassion. Though we address God as our Father, we know that even mothering comes from God for it was God who fashioned both our first parents, male and female, in his image.

And like our first parents, my “shoe” is too often where it shouldn’t be. I choose not to listen to the voice of my heavenly Parent and think that I know what is best for my life. And when I rebel against God, I end up losing something important. I lose the joy and peace that comes from the God who saved me in Jesus, who forgave me and gifted me with a resurrected life.

Yet, every day God finds me and puts the shoe back where it belongs. That’s what forgiveness is about. It restores what we have misplaced and lost. Even though there is a hundred percent chance that we’ll misplace our shoe again today, that we will not listen to our heavenly Parent, in mercy, through faith in Jesus, he puts that shoe of his love back on our feet.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church Colorado Springs, Colorado