The Fly Swatter and The Ice Pop

I heard a story of a father who found his son licking a fly swatter. He approached his son lovingly, questioned him, and then brought him to the freezer in the kitchen where he gave his son an ice pop. “This,” he said, “is what you’re looking for.”

God knows our deepest and first desire is for Him, that each of us can say with Job, “My inmost being is consumed with longing.” We were made for the ice pop. But God also knows that we are weak, and so, like the father in this story, He understands with compassion that we sometimes settle for the fly swatter.

We know this love of God as it’s revealed to us in Christ. We see it in the Gospels. Instead of condemning us for licking the fly swatter, He brings us to the Father in prayer. “This,” He says, “is what you’re looking for.” +