Naming and remembering

The comedian Jim Gaffigan has this great story of his 3-year-old son saying to him “look, daddy, a stick" as he points to an antenna on the roof of a house. Gaffigan starts to correct him and quickly realizes that it is essentially best described as a shiny stick.

My wife and I have been teaching our daughter animals and the sounds they make. Hands down my girl has the cutest lion roar I’ve ever heard. She’s learning all kinds of animals and the sounds they make. At a St. Patrick’s Day parade yesterday I was amazed that she could identify a Pug, Golden Retriever and Great Dane all as dogs, regardless of their breed. How do we learn that?

I just tried to teach her shapes. The page I had in front of us has five different shapes that are all different colors. How does she learn when we are referring to the shapes and not to the color. Does she have to catalog that information for the next time we do color with other items and put two and two together? So much to learn, yet we do so, constantly.

We learn language(s) and even more so the subtle nuances in body language. We learn music, so much so that we can identify a song from the first few notes. We learn how to swim, to bike, to draw. It’s really quite amazing.

Yet how is it that amidst this incredible learning I fail to remember and apply God’s truths in my life. How can I remember stories I read 20 years ago and yet forget that His grace is sufficient for me? How can I remember all the stuff I want, yet I forget that He will take care of my earthly needs so that I can focus on his Kingdom? How do I forget that he loves me?

If my daughter can remember that an owl says “Hoo hoo" and a cow says “Moo moo" then I should be able to remember the Jesus loves me, right?