. . . it has not yet been revealed what we shall be . . . —1 John 3:2

 

My great-granddaughter is at that great age. She gets excited about the smallest adventure. “Want to go bye-bye?” “What to take a bath?” “What to go outside?” Any of these will produce an excited giggle, nod of the head and her taking off in the right direction. She was created perfect and hasn’t had much chance to mess that up.

At some point as we age we seem to lose our love of adventure. We crave certainty and seek to avoid the uncertain.  You can begin to see this even in my little not quite 2-year-old. A touch of rebellion. A determination to do it her way. Little things that take her a few steps from the perfect path He intended. Already she finds comfort in the known and the familiar. As much as she still loves adventure, you can see the tendency toward a love of certainty.

“Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life— gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life.” I suppose this is part of our need to control. Control is what we surrender to God. “As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises.”

Jesus said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” (Matthew 18:3 ). The spiritual life is the life of a child. When we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy.