3 Things Found Bent Over

February 4, 2020

Today’s prompt is “3 things found when bent down.” It’s an intriguing thought that pushes me to think outside my own boxes. 

I learned a long time ago that if you want a child to talk with you, you have to bend down to their level. You learn lots of interesting things that way. Our little Gemma has been wiggling a loose tooth for at least a couple weeks. The other day, it was hanging by a thread, but she refused to let anyone pull it, and didn’t want to do it herself. I’ve never seen this kind of behavior before; when I was her age, when a tooth showed signs of loosening, I’d be at it with tongue and fingers, literally prying it out of my mouth. My kids were the same. Not Gemma. Sunday, a chance glance her way revealed a new gap in her mouth, so I called her to me and bent down to look. She smiled sheepishly and showed me the empty socket, telling me that it came out in her sleep. Fortunately, she didn’t swallow it; after all, I don’t think the Tooth Fairy leaves anything for pooped teeth.

Most of my shoes are tied loosely enough that I can easily slip my feet into them without messing with the laces. My aunt Marion was aghast one day when she saw me wiggling my heel into my shoe. “You’ll break down the heel!” she exclaimed. Raised during the Great Depression, such a pedantic travesty wouldn’t have been tolerated. We are not nearly as careful of our stuff as are those who know what it’s like to not have it. 

My hiking shoes are another matter. There’s no way I can get them on without carefully loosening the laces before slipping my foot into them. I can’t just stand and wiggle my feet into them. It takes a few seconds longer, but it’s good for the shoes. I wonder how many things in life would be better off if we took the time to bend over and take care with them? 

That’s exactly what God did for us. In Philippians, Paul says Jesus didn’t cling to his status as God, but humbled himself, taking on human flesh for our salvation. He bent down low to save us. Salvation can be lowly, dirty business. It wasn’t something God did casually standing on one foot, so to speak, wiggling and forcing his way into the shoe leather of our hearts. He bent down, carefully loosening the laces by which we were bound in sin, before gently slipping inside us by the Holy Spirit. then he binds up the loose and broken parts, lacing us securely in his love so he can walk out his life in us. I’m grateful he didn’t try to do all this from a distance.