The Thumb Affair

 “Wah, wah, wah.”

Why was the baby crying? Gama (that would be me) went to check. He was standing at the trash can (the kitchen item for which he has an inexplicable fascination), his thumb wedged under the lid. The same lid my son had secured with a special safety latch so baby couldn’t get at the garbage (don’t even ask!).

Thinking that the baby was crying with frustration at being unable to open his beloved trash can, Gama indulged in a chuckle, then tried to distract baby. As in, getting a beautiful rubber ball and bouncing  it enticingly. It worked—kind of. Baby turned enraptured eyes to me, then looked longingly at the ball. But he did not move away from his beloved trash can.

Luckily for him, mom was home. “Is his thumb stuck under there????” she asked.

Getting closer, I saw she was right. What I had thought as stubbornness not wanting to leave the trash can was actually an inability to do so. In his persistent trying to open the well-locked lid, Baby had managed to wedge his thumb under the lid. And now he couldn’t pull it out.

It was an easy fix and, once free, baby happily ran away with the ball.

I couldn’t help but feel bad that I had failed to realize my grandchild was in distress. But once the self-deprecation waned,  my thoughts wandered into an epiphany. “How many other times," I asked myself, "have I misjudged a situation simply because I didn’t realize the full story behind what I was seeing?”

Take Rahab, she who earned her living as a prostitute in Jericho. More than likely anyone looking at her despised her, her background, her way of life. She lived in a culture that minimized women, and especially women of the night. But God saw something in that woman. He saw a person grieved by her way of life and who longed for something better—for Someone better.

Her story is found in Joshua 2. Interestingly enough, the first success of the children of Israel in the promised land can be directly attributed to her. Hebrews 11:31 gives a little insight into how her actions, despite what people thought of her, were motivated by (gasp! how could this be!) faith in the Living God. God saw past the incidentals of her life, as egregious to others and painful as they might have been to her, to her heart. He saw a woman longing for redemption. Doesn’t Scripture say, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 11:13)? She sought Him. She found Him. And God saw such value in this once scorned woman that He included her in the lineage of King David and Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

What do we see around us? Someone to deprecate? Or someone infinitely valuable because Jesus died for them?

Lord, let me see beyond the stuck thumbs. Let my eyes not be turned by tattoos and nose rings, my heart by scornful words. Let me see through Your eyes, let me sense and move in the tender mercies You long to extend to those You not only created but died for.

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9)."

“… for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7).