Cart Before the Horse

My four-year-old son told me that he didn’t like being pregnant. In a very fatherly fashion, I reassured him that he sisn’t and can’t be, as only girls can get pregnant. Then he asked what if he grew his hair long? Really long? Really, really long?

No, son, you won’t.

He thought that since so many of the females he knows have long hair that it was the hair length that made them female, instead of them growing their hair long because they’re females. Maybe I should let his hair grown really, really long just to mess with him.

Don’t we sometimes confuse the purpose of the commandments found in the Bible? Don’t we sometimes think that following these commandments makes us Christians, rather than we follow them because we are Christians?

A telltale sign of this is when we focus more on us or others following the rules over loving God and others. The Pharisees did this, modern-day fundamentalists do this, our toddlers sometimes unknowingly do this.

Let’s not do this.

Instead, let’s focus on loving God and neighbour, and know that we, too, are loved. Everything else will fall into place.

God, you reveal your love to us time and again. Help us to reflect that love back to you and to our neighbours. Amen. — NF