Saturday afternoon I was in the kitchen pottering around and a smiley face appeared at the window – my four-year-old neighbour. Waving to him and looking out past him, I motioned to him to stay where he was as I made my way to the front door. We greeted each other and I scoured the area to locate his parents. No-one in sight. ‘Where’s Mummy?’ I asked. She’s at work was the reply. ‘And Daddy?’ In the garden, sorting out the barbeque. By this time, Julian my partner had joined us on the front doorstep.
My young friend went into great detail about their shopping expedition that morning for chicken to put on the barbeque and how their friends were coming round later to eat with them once Mummy was back from work. And now, he announced, he was going to go and do some more shopping….as he strode off down the road.
By this time, I had signalled to Julian to go into the back garden and attract his Dad’s attention, as I was sure that Daddy was unaware that his son had opened the front door and was setting off on a shopping mission, thinking that he was amusing himself inside the house.
I had wedged myself in front of my young friend and stopped him in his tracks, explaining that he was too young to go shopping on his own even though he insisted he had money and would be fine.
Once informed, Julian said the boy’s father just dropped everything and sprinted out the front to reason with and bring back his son.
We can be just the same. We think we can go off on our own – that our own resources will be enough to get us through – blissfully unaware of the dangers in the wider world. If only we had the humility and understanding to check with our Heavenly Father first and ask Him to travel with us before we put ourselves in danger.