How precious when we all just get along

Thanks for loving my story yesterday…so fun to share it with you.

But if there is one thing we Reimers are, it is honest.

And woven around all the joy and laughter is a healthy dose of real life and there are days when those little darlings give their mommy and daddy a run for the money…not to mention us grandparents.

Because they are fully, 100% H.U.M.A.N.

We are wired to cherish those moments when our children get along for a reason.

Made in God’s image, we get a glimpse of His heart when we encourage, beg, threaten, discipline, lecture and otherwise attempt all methods known to man in the effort to get our children to get along with each other.

And by get along, I don’t mean that kind of camaraderie where two gang up on another or fellowship is enhanced as they plot some misdeed or gleefully pursue driving the adult on duty into a frenzy of frustration.

Anyone who has ever had more than fifteen minutes of tending small children knows there is a blissful place, that comes far too rarely, when everyone is playing cooperatively and being kind and we just want it to last forever.

But it typically is over before we can even grab our phone to snap a picture documenting it actually happened.

Thankfully, it does occur often enough to give us hope for the possibility and some smiles in our heart that keep us going through the rougher parts of child rearing.

But back to that “in the likeness of God” idea I mentioned.

Because God also loves when His children get along in productive and kind and altruistic ways.

I think it is expressed best and most clearly in Psalm 133:

How wonderful, how beautiful,

when brothers and sisters get along!

It’s like costly anointing oil

flowing down head and beard,

Flowing down Aaron’s beard,

flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.

It’s like the dew on Mount Hermon

flowing down the slopes of Zion.

Yes, that’s where God commands the blessing,

ordains eternal life.

I love this phrasing from The Message Bible.

And while for mom’s reading this, the idea of anything flowing down the head and onto the clothes may be a bit too much of a reminder of the breakfast mess you just scoured off your child, the furniture and the floor…grab the concept.

When we get along with our brothers and sisters, it is like a priest being anointed with holy oil…like the morning dew refreshing the earth and glistening with the promise of a new day.

It does not mean getting along as in we agreed to join forces and run things the way we want it.

And not uniting to give more impact to our agenda and way of thinking.

Nor does it mean forming a pack out of mutual love and admiration for those who make us feel good about who we are.

No, this blessed unity comes when our love for God is so powerful that we see His children with His eyes and we love them with a power that we do not possess in our humanity.

This sweet love can only come when we allow God to overrule our natural tendencies to be selfish and surrender our hearts so that He can pour His love through us onto others.

I well remember my own days in the trenches when our three would have moments when picking on each other seemed to give them some kind of pleasure that was wearing me out.

In desperation, I would tell them that while they seemed to be enjoying the sport of it all, it was ripping at my heart to see them fighting.

Out of love for me, more than fear of punishment, they would … at times…rein in their desire to harass a sibling and there would be some moments of blessed peace.

Can we not do the same for our Father who loves us so much more perfectly than we can ever fully comprehend?

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