When the Giant Lies Down

Tonight, like many nights, I stood smiling and scrubbing at the kitchen sink while shrieks of laughter, grunts of playfulness and the deepest-belly laughs resounded from the living room. Papa was playing with his girls. While we "women" have spells of giggles and more than the occasional hearty-laugh in our days, no one can bring those sounds of joy like Joel can--oh, how their father's presence can transform our children.

I was reminded tonight of a book I read years ago entitled, When the Giant Lies Down. And while I must confess that I don't remember much of the book, I will forever remember the example from the author's life from which he drew the title. He created a vivid picture of himself, coming home in his suit from a long days work only to be tackled by his four young children. They would play and play until slowly the children disappeared and he would roll himself to the couch to rest for a moment or two. Although moving at the time, the story could never mean as much then, as it does now, as I watch my own husband relive it in our own living room--day after day.

Adults are giants. A six-foot man is an awesome sight to a three-foot-high kid. In adult terms, that would be a twelve-foot man walking into a room of six-footers. The word "overwhelming" hardly begins to describe the feeling. But a magical thing happens when the big guy stretches out on the floor: The threat goes away. He looks absolutely different. He is accessible, touchable, open.
By physical dimensions alone, the parent in a toddler's home is God. Power. Authority. Direction. They are all wrapped up in that person. Those things don't change when the adult ends up on the floor, but they feel different...in that moment latent love, joy, and devotion explode in a tumbling, tussling dance on the carpet...Those moments become reference books in a child's library of experience. They are cataloged under "L" for "loving." Memorable loving is touching, affirming, no-holds-barred collage of lives intertwined with each other bringing joy for its own sake...
~ When the Gian Lies Down, Dick & Ruth Foth

I started thinking about Joel's impact on our children and that by the grace of God, as leader of our family, his vision will help shape their own vision and purpose for life and his consistency in discipline will help shape their character. But even more so, the way he loves the Lord and loves them, will forever imprint on their hearts the way they should love the Lord and love others. And I realized tonight, that so much of their view of love is shaped when Joel is lying down. Whether on the floor in fits of laughter or in the still moments before bedtime as we line up on our bellies to read on our bed, they see how authentic his love is in the way he lies down.

As John Piper said "in all that a father does to bring his children to maturity there should be a provision and a care that assures the child that, behind all the discipline and instruction, there is a great heart of love. This earthly father is working all things together for the good of his child. And so God’s character is being displayed... the content of a father’s teachings and warnings, and the method of a father’s modeling discipline, and the goal of a father’s whole life with his children will be from the Lord, through the Lord, and for the Lord. That is, a father will guide all his words and ways by God’s word, and depend on God’s wisdom and strength to apply them, and make everything serve the glory of Christ. In other words, the most important thing in raising children is that they come to see Christ, the Lord, as supremely valuable as Savior and Lord and Treasure of life."

As I continued scrubbing and chuckling myself, I was struck by the thought of my Savior and the fact that he laid down his life, endured death on the cross and bore wrath for my sins "for the joy set before him." My prayer is that in those moments when I could easily distract Joel from playing with his girls with something so noble as washing dishes, that I will remember what my Father and my Savior laid down for me and I will treasure the moment as Joel the Giant lays down for his children, for the joy (and all those giggles) set before him.