The Big Boy and the Toddler

Many of my posts are stories that are completely made up, but I saw something this weekend that I feel is just as much a parable, but which actually happened.

My son, who is 2 years old, was walking down the hallway after Sunday School. A bigger boy, probably 10 or 11 years old, walked out of his Sunday School class and nearly bumped into my son. Realizing this, the big boy wanted to be friendly to my son saying, "Sorry. Oh, hi there. Did you have fun in Sunday School?"

My son looked up at him with huge eyes, not exactly sure what to say. So the bigger boy said, "Hey watch this." He then proceeded to blow a bubble with some bubble gum. When it popped, my son laughed hysterically. So the big boy did it again. My son laughed again.

It was then clear that my son wanted to say something to the big boy, but being as he is just starting to put full sentences together and has not grasped the art of conversation, he struggled for a moment to come up with something really good. Finally he said, "I had breaksist!" (his word for breakfast)

The big boy clearly misunderstand what my son had said, because he replied, "Cool! You're in karate?" (I began laughing)

Frustrated, my son said, "No!" He then started rubbing his tummy and said, "Waffle and nanny!" (banana)

The big boy definitely didn't understand this, and he had grown bored, so he said, "Okay, well, bye," and wandered off.

To me, it was a funny story to tell my wife and some of my friends at church. But then I realized that this was a perfect parable about our prayer life. God looks down on us and thinks, "How cute my little ones are," and He has given us all the things in this world to please and entertain us. But we don't really understand Him, or how to communicate properly with Him. So we pray, but our prayers are often just as nonsensical as saying, "I had breaksist!"

He understands what we are saying, but we don't aren't mature enough to understand His full plan, so we communicate the best we can. Our prayers are self centered. They are about the things we are concerned with, which may not be what God is concerned with. And when He doesn't answer the way we want, we get frustrated, and try to explain again, as if He is the one who misunderstood. But we are just to young and naive to grasp the Lord's masterplan. And so we toddlers are left a little bit confused, but still in awe of the Big Boy.