September 5th

Jonah’s Tree

            The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush.  But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah 4:6-8

            Some context:  God called his prophet, Jonah, to go to the evil people of Nineveh and deliver a message of warning and repentance.  Jonah refused and hopped on a boat to the other side of the world.  God caught him and brought him back.  Jonah relented and delivered his message.  The people believed and repented and God forgave them.  Jonah then got angry and left the city, setting up a little shelter to the east.  He told God that this was why he did not want to come here in the first place.  He knew that God was merciful and would forgive these people and they deserved all the judgment and destruction that would come their way.  He sat and he watched to see what would happen to the city.

            Nothing.  Nothing happened to the city.  There were no great earthquakes.  No plagues descending upon their heads.  No fire raining from heaven.  It seemed that the people of Nineveh had truly repented and God had truly forgiven them…and this was completely unacceptable to Jonah.  These people were evil.  They had attacked and pillaged and enslaved the Jews for generations and now that they would finally get what was coming to them, they simply said a couple of words and it was all okay?  Jonah asked God to kill him because this was a world that he could not live in.

            As Jonah was watching the city, God grew a plant that provided shade and Jonah found peace and contentment in this small miracle.  Then God sent a worm that ate the plant, killing it…and Jonah was back to being so mad that he wanted to die.  Why would God do that?  Why would He toy with Jonah and Jonah’s emotions like that?

            God talks with Jonah at the end of the book and points to the plant as an example.  Jonah deeply cared about that bush even though he did nothing to make it grow and only enjoyed it for a short period of time.  How much more, God asks Him, would God care about the great city that had over 120,000 of His children who were lost and headed towards destruction?  We never hear Jonah’s response.  I think that is because the author wants us to sit with the very same question and figure out our own response.

            Our emotions, just like Jonah’s, are deeply invested into so many small and insignificant things.  My day can be made or ruined by a couple of words given by a complete stranger.  It can be made or ruined by the actions of fictional characters in a favorite book or tv show.  It can be made or ruined by whether I burn dinner or not.  Some of those things are under our control.  Some are not.  All of them influence my mood and my emotions and my energy and my belief about whether God is good or what my purpose in life is.

            If this is true for me, it is especially true for my son.  His world can be blown apart by going to the library at a different time of day or having a different fork at dinner or being asked to blow dry his hair because it is still wet.  We have had entire days of activity that had to be cancelled because a shirt had a stain and needed to be washed.  How do you get someone to change what they are focused on and what they care about?

            Well…to take the pressure off, if God struggled in this with Jonah, we should not feel bad about it being a challenge with our kids.  The heart wants what it wants and what my son wants is outside of my control.  There are a few things that I have found help us make some forward movement along the path:

·         Try new things.  Get into the pattern of trying new things with your child.  New foods.  New activities.  New people.  New places to visit.  In partnership with this…

·         No surprises.  Talk with your child about where we are going or who we will be meeting.  I usually start talking about a new adventure a few days before it happens to give him time to mull it over and work through all the anxiety that may arise.

·         Be flexible to change plans.  Sometimes new just does not work.  Be willing to hold plans loosely as the end goal is to have a good experience with your child.

·         Surround new with familiar.  Make sure that days with new experiences also have a lot of familiar things for the child to return to.  It could be a favorite movie or a standard dinner or the bed-time routine, but I like to give my son a safe landing after a day of trying new things.

           

           

A moment to reflect:

What new things would you like your child to care about?  How could you help them work towards that?