Tornado Hands

I took my 7 and 3 year-olds to the grocery store with me today.  When we got in the store, I told them not to touch anything.  As soon as they began walking with me down the aisle, they touched everything they saw.  I call it "tornado hands" because that's what it feels like as a mother to have four sets of hands grabbing at everything in sight and trying to maintain order and keep them from breaking something or shoving random items that we don't need in the buggy.  For this particular trip, I only had to worry about two sets of hands, but they were still tornado hands, nonetheless.

As soon as we were the on the side of the store that is furthest away from the bathroom, my 3 year-old said, "Mommy, I have to go potty."  To which I replied, "Of course you do."  So, we packed a mule with supplies and began our long journey to the other side of the world so I could take her to the bathroom.  When we got into the bathroom, I told her not to touch anything.  When we got into the stall, I told her not to touch anything.  When I put her on the potty, I told her not to touch anything, to just hold onto me because everything else was dirty and could make her sick.  I told her to just hold onto me so she didn't fall.  I stood very close to her, I never left her.  And as soon as she was done, she put both hands on the toilet seat. 

I looked down at her and I said, "What did I tell you not to do?" 

She looked up at me with her big brown eyes and said, "Not to touch anything." 

I said, "And what did you just do?" 

Still looking upwards at me with those big brown eyes she said, "Touched something."

And in that moment, I thought of the Garden and of God and of Adam and Eve.

In that moment, I realized, we are all Eve.

We all hear what God instructs us to do, and choose otherwise.

We are also all Adam.

We have all pointed our finger at someone else and thrown them under the bus to duck accountability for our own actions.

If it had been us instead of Adam and Eve, every single one of us would have done the same thing.

Just like I tell my daughter not to touch dirty things because they will make her sick, God also tells us not to touch sinful things because they are dirty and can make us spiritually sick.  He tells us not to do certain things because He knows that they will only draw us further away from Him.  He tells us to hold onto Him so we don't fall.  He stays very close to us and never leaves us, yet we still try to balance ourselves by grabbing onto things that He doesn't want us to touch.

Lord, cure us from our tornado hands.

"What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.' Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. And: 'I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.'" (2 Cor 6:16-18)

"Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to falsehood, who does not swear deceitfully." (Psalm 24:3,4)

"Then I heard another voice from heaven say: 'Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins or receive any of her plagues. For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.'" (Rev 18:4,5)

"The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness; He has repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His rules are before me; I have not disregarded His statutes." (Psalm 18:20-22)