A Worthless Baby

I realized yesterday that my oldest daughter is better at stuff than my newborn.

The 15 month old, Claira, was kicking a giant ball that I think she stole from Wal-Mart around the house while the new born, Macy, was just lying there. Claira was doing a jig, a dance that seamlessly combined the art of spinning and the art of jumping, while Macy again did nothing to entertain me. Every time they play dodgeball, Claira wins.

I feel bad joking about this, but I wrote the above paragraph to make a point. The truth is that I love my girls equally. My feelings toward them have nothing to do with their abilities or their achievements. Claira knows all the motions to several VBS songs and Macy can barely control her arms. I love them equally.

When Claira was first born, God used her to teach me about unconditional love. With Macy, He has taught me why He asks us not to judge one another. It would break my heart if Claira thought she was better than Macy.

I have preached sermons on the sin of judging others in which I claimed that the problem with judgment is that when we judge, we are putting ourselves in the shoes of God.  I was wrong.

It is only when we have removed ourselves from the shoes of God that we judge. It is only when we start seeing things without the lens of God that we judge.

When we judge, it hurts God in the same way it would hurt me if either one of my daughters acted superior to the other because of some perceived favoritism on my part. I want them to love each other as much as I love them (that sounds familiar).

When Jesus tells the story of the speck and the plank in Matthew 7, He says, "first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

I always wondered why my sin was a plank and everyone else's sin was a speck. The more I read that passage, the more I think that judgment is the only plank sin. It is the only sin that can keep you from seeing clearly enough to help anyone around. Judgment is the plank in your eye. Instead of helping, you are hurting.

Jesus says that if we remove that plank from our eye, the judgment from our life, it is only then that we can start helping.