As a Father Pitieth

Last week, my inquisitive, four year old son, found that the handle on the piano cover was loose. Being curious, he turned the knob this way and that, until all at once it fell off in his hand. Uh oh. He quickly tried to put it back on but the screw had sunk back into the wood! He tried pushing and twisting it but to no avail, it would not stay on. Now what should he do? He probably shouldn’t have been pulling on it so hard. And even though he knew he was not to play with the piano, he knew he should not be messing around it either! So he ran to find his big sister, who, after careful examination, decided that the problem would best be solved with copious amounts of tape to hold the knob in place. They fixed it there as best as they knew how, and hoped that it would go unnoticed, which it did for a few days.

Last night, I saw the knob was missing and wondered what had happened. My wife said she had bumped against it and it had fallen off so she picked it up and set it on the top of the piano. I took the knob to see if I could get it back on, and noticed all the tape. Knowing that knobs are not in the habit of taping themselves to pianos, I started asking the children who knew what had happened to the knob. My four year old immediately suggested that my three year old might know what had happened to it. But alas, my three year old knew nothing, except that there might be trouble brewing and he didn’t want it coming down on him! After some talking, the story came out and the knob was safely screwed back onto the piano cover where it belonged.

As I lay in bed last night, I thought how often I have responded to life’s problems with the same response as my little son. I am curious about things in life. I want to take it in my hands, twist it, pull it, and move it around, until before I know it, I have pieces in my hands. Now I could run to my Father and ask Him to help me, but so often I find myself running to my friends, or buying a book to tell me how to “fix it.” And through lots of effort, I am able to tape things back together so that to the casual observer, it looks just fine. But the broken pieces are still there. They have not healed, but are simply held in place so that we look good from a distance, but the wounds still run deep.

Oh if only we would run to our heavenly Father! He can take our life’s messes, our broken pieces and know exactly how to fix them and heal the wounds at the same time. Yes, there is correction needed too, but as He mends our broken parts back together, He talks to us, challenges us, and in innumerable ways, loves us as only He can. And when He is done, we are stronger and better equipped to face the work that He has for us.

But why do we run to others before taking the problem to God? Psalms 103:13 says, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.” The definition of pitieth gives the picture of a parent snuggling their child up close, comforting them, and having mercy upon them. Just as I long for my children to bring their hurts, fears, and questions to me, so God longs to be our confidant, to snuggle us up close, and help heal the bumps and bruises that come our way. He loves us too much to just let us go on our way unchanged; rather He molds us and teaches us so that we grow through our trials. But we have to come to Him first.

This was first published June 9th, 2009 and I'm slowly moving them over here as I won't be using Facebook much anymore.