Should I put it back?

"Hey Mom, what's this?" Many mothers cringe when those words come from a five yr old boy! "I don't know, son, where'd you get it?" I replied. "From my ear." Driving a big suburban down the road at the time, I could barely make out an orange-colored substance on my son's finger. I informed him that it was earwax. "Oh," he says, "what's it for?" I explained in my best homeschooling voice about the necessity of earwax and it's importance in God's plan for protecting our ears, and it must have made an impression because the next words I heard were, "Should I put it back??!?!"

Has your son or daughter ever explained life in such a way that your couldn't help but laugh? You know, sometimes a child has more understanding than we adults do. Sometimes their advice just makes sense! A friend recently sent a video clip of a 9yr old boy explaining why we should read through the whole Bible....that the Bible was "kinda like scene selection of a DVD movie....if you just go in and watch certain scenes you won't get a full understanding of what God is saying or doing, so we should watch the whole movie." Some parts you may just want to take out all together! Today's reading passage has several of those scenes, in my opinion.

We find Lot, alone at the gate of a very wicked city. The angels who have been sent to rescue Lot and his family, find themselves face-to-face with the evil in the land. That's scary. (Lot doesn't earn any parenting stars in this scene, either.) Upon fleeing Sodom, Lot's wife disobeyed the Lord's command not to look back and is immediately turned to a statue of salt. That's strange. Lot and two of his daughters find themselves in a cave, and whether or not the daughters' motives were honorable in carrying on the family name, their tactics certainly were not. That's bad.

We then flash over to Abraham and Sarah, where he tries the whole "Just tell them you're my sister" line again. That's inaccurate. We find God faithful to His promise to Abraham, rescuing him yet again. When the family was celebrating a special day in the life of Isaac, his mother caught his half-brother teasing him and declared, "Hagar's got to go!" So Abraham sent his son, Ishmael, and the mother, Hagar, on their way with nothing more than bread and water. That's harsh.

Sometimes we are tempted to take out parts of God's word because it's not politically correct, or it's uncomfortable to think about, or it doesn't fit picture of God we've created in our own minds. Think about this.....are there some parts of your own life that you'd like to take out? Maybe some embarrassing moments or horrible mistakes that caused terrible consequences? I'd like to challenge you to consider this thought... maybe God reveals Himself during those times, in ways that He wouldn't ordinarily. He is His strongest when we are weakest. His grace and mercy exceed our greatest imaginations! Remember our girl, Ruth? She was a Moabite woman included in lineage of David.....descended from one of Lot's daughters. Remember Rehoboam? He was King Solomon's son.....descended from the other of Lot's daughters, an Ammonite. Both of these peoples were enemies of the Hebrews, but God's grace has no limit! He proves His grace in stories like these!

I'm asking you to reconsider "deleting" parts of God's story. Everything in His word is important to us knowing Him more fully! Timothy says "All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." Don't skip parts of His word, but instead ask yourself, "Should I put it back?"