HUNGRY

My granddaughter Coco is always at it—eating! Her all-time favorite? Blueberries, yum! 

Her mom Opalyn fondly calls her "my very hungry caterpillar," referencing Eric Carle's very popular and multi-awarded children's book.  

So naturally, when Coco turned a year old recently, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" became her party theme. And as usual, all her photos showed her munching... munching... munching. 

She just wouldn't stop! Give her a chicken bone or pork rib and she'd just as happily gnaw at it. 

Always biting or chomping, a caterpillar is a persistent eater. 

What happens after all the nibbling and crunching? The caterpillar digests itself with its own enzymes, dissolving its tissues, then transforming these into body parts—a painful yet miraculous process. 

Metamorphosis! How a crawly and slowpoke worm magically turns into a vari-colored swift-flying wonder—the best friend of flowers, a boon to plant life, especially agricultural productivity, and a sight for sore eyes. 

"The very hungry caterpillar" may be an apt metaphor for a growing child who always needs to be fed so he or she develops into a healthy individual. 

I've prayed that Coco's (and our other grandchildren's) constant hunger for food metamorphoses into a craving for the things of God—that she would turn to God's Word for spiritual nourishment and desire His righteousness instead of the transient pleasures and highs found in material possessions. 

That these words would resonate in and convict her heart to do His Way:

1Peter 2:2 Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, so that by it, you may grow in respect to salvation.

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the Bread of life; he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst."

Between ten to 15 days, a caterpillar is no more. Changed, totally! 

The Word of God promises us the same thing. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here," 2 Corinthians 5:17. 

Coco developing a hunger for God? She's on the right track. 

She may have started like the very hungry caterpillar. With godly parents and loved ones teaching and showing her the Way, she will soon realize that Jesus alone satisfies. 

Image credit: kids.nationalgeographic.com

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for our children and grandchildren. May they know You intimately even as they mature. May they see the difference between the "food" that the world offers, and the real riches you have stored up for them. May they walk on solid ground and glorify your Name alone. 

STATUS: IN A RELATIONSHIP

Image credit: www.instructables.com (I Do Wedding Prop)

Our universe and earth-life are all about relationships, symbiosis or mutuality.

The sun's radiation and rotation affect not only our climates and sense of night and day, but also our health and overall well-being.  

Plants―while giving us shade, timber and food―provide us oxygen while they take in carbon dioxide from what we exhale.

As small as they are, bees pollinate crops for sustainable agricultural production, on the side gratifying us and bears with honey. Ants rely on teamwork to escape being trampled upon.

Human babies depend on their mothers and fathers' love and caring if they are to become capable adults.

So is it so surprising that our Creator would want to carry on a relationship with us? After all, He refers to Himself too as our Father.

And He has made known His intentions in many ways. Adam and Eve were definitely in speaking terms with Him―until the fall. Nonetheless, He let he door open for them and their future sons and daughters  to seek Him even if they botched it.    

God gave us this awesome universe and this planet we call home. If you don't see His hand in that, you're blind indeed. How could every nano-nano, functioning and interacting detail of this amazing creation be just a random infusion of elements, or evolution, as scientists would have us believe? 

Sadder still is the fact that many have chosen to worship the created―the sun and moon, for example―instead of the Creator Himself.

But God, being God, was persistent, picking a bunch of hard-headed and complaining folks to demonstrate His plan and power. By favoring the Jews, was God being unfair to the rest of the world? 

Well, He is God and He could choose any one, can't He, to prove that He is God?

Look at what happened to the Jews: forever assaulted by other nations―with the holocaust as one of history's recent nightmares; yet till today, and in spite of their neighbors and the devil's destructive designs on her, Israel thrives―a kind of prosperity and ingenuity envied even by the West. Quite a testimony of God's favor, patience and protection!

And through the Jews, God sent us His Son who became man. Ironically, they refused Jesus, the promised Messiah, save for a handful of believers. But through His miracles, and His death and resurrection, and the power He bestowed on His followers, God unequivocally revealed: I want to have a relationship with you. I will be great on your behalf. If only you'd follow Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Even if Jesus rejoined His Father―to fulfil His role as our intercessor―God sent the disciples the Holy Spirit, first at Pentecost when the apostles gathered, after which they were  empowered to preach Jesus and perform miracles. Up to today, every one placing his faith in Jesus gets to be indwelt by the same Holy Spirit―for power to obey and preach Jesus.   

Acts 2:17―"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams."

Jesus our Shepherd continues to gather His lost sheep―relentlessly. Have you come back to His pen yet?