On routines, on 4am alarm calls, and other things...

Huw Williams | 20:13, Saturday 21 April 2012 | Turin, Italy

"Are you starting to get into a routine yet?" seems to be the most common question from people who are a little further down the parenting road. Parenting books seems to disagree over so many aspects of parenting, but most seem to agree that establishing some kind of routine is good for everyone – baby, Mum and Dad. Quite aside from all the changes brought about by the new addition to our home, I'm a fairly structured person. I like routine, order. I like to plan my day, my week. I like to know what I’m doing next. But sometimes that desire can make me be a little inflexible.

Not that Kitty notices that. When she's hungry she lets us know. If she needs to burp, she doesn't wait until I've finished my current Pomodoro. When it’s time for a nappy change, it's time for a nappy change. (Good observation Huw, I bet you’ve never noticed that about babies before, have you?) But do you know what? I don’t mind.

And therein is the miracle.

We were thinking in our sermon in Ruth 1 on Sunday how the desires of our hearts will decide the directions of our lives. The things our hearts are attracted to are the things we will move towards, so for Elimelech and Naomi it was Moab, for Ruth it was God. So it’s far easier to get up at 4am for a crying Kitty than it is to get up at 4am and go for a 10-mile run; why? Because my heart is engaged by my daughter, but it couldn’t be less engaged by the thought of running 10 miles, at any time of the day or night.

And so it begs the question of us in all our relationships, doesn't it? What does our quickness to run after idols, to worship ourselves, to run away to Moab say about our love for God? What does our impatience, our irritability, our quickness to criticise or to complain, say about our love for our brothers and sisters?

Like a billion other parents, a look at my child fills me with a desire to love her. That doesn't make me a hero, that makes me what we might call a 'normal' Dad. We expect it, when we come across a parent who doesn't feel that way about his/her child, we rightly conclude that there is something wrong with them. So why when we look at God, do we not feel the same overwhelming desire to move towards Him in love and relationship? Could it be there is something wrong with us? Could it be that we don’t always see the God of the Bible as clearly, in all His beauty, as He reveals Himself?

But more on that next time.