God's Plan for The Home

Olan is my fourth-born child and he is turning eight years old tomorrow! It's true what they say, the days are long, but the years are short.

He is now at an age where he can understand some complex ideas. Recently I grossed him out in a discussion about cleanliness. I taught him that billions of bacteria are crawling all over his body. Another time I blew his mind when I told him sand was basically tiny rocks. He did not believe me until I showed him a picture of sand under a microscope. Another complex idea Allie and I are trying to teach him is nutrition.

The other day around lunchtime, and being a hungry growing boy with a dash of independence, he went to the food pantry and got his lunch. His lunch consisted of a package of four bite-sized muffins called Little Bites. I took some time to explain that the muffins would taste good and fill him up for a little while, but not offer him a lot of nutrition. We then made a peanut butter sandwich on wheat bread, with an apple, and a couple of Little Bites. While not the absolute most nutritious meal, I explained to him what ways each of those items affected his body.

Sometimes the Bible is like that. We like the Little Bite passages. We like sermons about God's love, redemption, and overcoming power. We love reading miracle stories about resurrections and healing the blind. But every once in a while we have to round out that diet with some helpful, if a little harder to swallow, biblical nutrition. Tomorrow is one of those days.

The Apostle Peter is going to give us a nutritious meal on how exiles live in the home. It's going to be a little like eating broccoli. While it's not the most delicious meal, it is really good for us. I think you will be thankful you joined us. I hope you will worship with us tomorrow as we continue our exploration of living life as an exile.