Attempting to put sunscreen on a two-year-old is like trying to catch a greased pig. You can try, but it’s not going to be pretty.
Yet Emma wanted to play in the park and it was sunny outside and since she was in our care, we dug out the sunscreen. A dab on her nose and each cheek should have been easy to smooth out.
Should have.
Did I mention Emma is two? She looked this way and that and up and down and around. I tried rubbing that lotion in for all I was worth. And failed.
Her head was wiggling and wobbling and there was no way that sun screen was going to get smoothed out.
Finally, she’d had enough and—spoiler alert—she did not decide to sit still. Instead, she muttered, “Come on!” As if I was laying down on the job.
Emma could not know that A), I had her best interests at heart and that B), she herself was the cause of the delay. All I wanted was for her to sit still so I could finish my task.
I wonder how often our Heavenly Father feels the same way about us. He’s trying to protect us from something. And we’re wiggling and wobbling and increasingly frustrated that “nothing is happening.” We even wonder (secretly of course) if He’s laying down on the job.
But the whole time He has our best interests at heart. And—like Emma—we are often the cause of our own delays. None of which keeps us from muttering a frustrated prayer that sounds remarkably like Emma’s: “Come on!”
Maybe it’s time to just sit and let God be God.