Yesterday one of my canvas prints arrived at the house.  You can see it in the picture–it was a photo of my granddaughter in her new car on Christmas morning, complete with cell phone and pink wig.

I opened the package and called the grandest baby over. Her eyes widened and she took the huge 16 x 20 almost reverently.  Then she uttered a word I’d never heard her say before:  CUTE!

She’s not even two yet, so she’s still  in one-word sentences, but for half an hour or so that’s all we heard:  “Cuuuute!”  She carried that huge canvas around, smiling at it, and then smiling at us and saying, “Cute!”  Her mother and I laughed, because she was so doggone . . . cute.

But then we tried to take it away from her to hang it on the wall . . . and she let out an ear-splitting wail that sent my migraine into overdrive. :-/

Now it’s the next morning, and I’m still thinking about that little episode.  When an almost-two-year-old thinks she’s cute, we smile and laugh because it’s, well, honest.   Many adults who feel the same way will cloak themselves in humility and say, “Oh, it’s just a picture.”

But there’s a spiritual lesson in that little story, too.  Because I love my granddaughter, I took the picture, photoshopped out the dining room background, painted in blue skies and clouds, and sent it off to be printed on canvas.  I paid to have it mounted, gallery wrapped, and delivered.

But was my granddaughter thinking of any of that?  Of course not, she’s only a baby.

YET . . . how often do we adults take something that God has given us, parade it around, and scream like crazy if someone attempts to take it away?  I know I’ve behaved exactly like Lola did, and at a much more advanced age.  Yet I didn’t create the thing I was clinging to, and I didn’t give the gift to myself. My heavenly Father was responsible for everything, and if he wants to do something else with what he’s given me, I need to let him. Without screaming. 🙂

This little parable brought to you by Angela Hunt and the Grandest Baby.