Object Permanence

Coen was a little grumpy this afternoon. He woke up from a nap and was crying real tears. He cried through his feeding and after about 20 minutes he finally perked up a bit. So we played. I gave him some mixing bowls which he loved. I also gave him a baking pan and a spoon. He liked picking each one and hitting other stuff with it. I showed him how to hit the spoon against each of them to make a fun sound. Then he took the spoon and banged on the items as well. It cracked me up and I had no idea he could be shown how to do something and then turn around and do it!

Once he got bored of that we read a few books while he chewed on the spoon. Then it was time for a new activity so I grabbed his burp cloth and started playing peek-a-boo. I think it was last week that I got a reaction from the game for the first time. He'd chuckle each time I revealed my face and wait for the game to start over. So today we played for a long time. I must have hid behind the cloth at least 40 times. Sometimes I hid his face but he seemed to like it best when I was the one to hide. Every time I took the cloth away he was delighted to see me and his face lit up and he'd chuckle (still only does small short laughs). He still hasn't mastered object permanence which is why the game is so great to him. Object permanence is being able to understand that things continue to exist even when they cannot be observed. So every time I pop out from that cloth it's as if I magically appear to him. It's also why you can remove an item from the baby that you don't want them to have, hide it, and they'll forget about it. Older children will just go and grab the item from behind the couch, or open the cabinet to get it back out, because they know that the item still exists.

As I was playing with me it struck me how oftentimes we haven't grasped object permanence when it comes to God. We'll see him work in our lives and we know that it's God. We praise him for his faithfulness. We cling to him through our storms and trials. He is there when we need him. God always shows up. But that's all that it is to us sometimes. We think of him showing up but He never went anywhere. Instead He is there, waiting for us to pull the cloth aside so he can say "peek-a-boo." We act like He doesn't exist when we can't observe Him working in our lives. We forget that he exists when we can't observe Him.

But that's completely wrong. Whether we're hiding behind the cloth ourselves or we feel like he's hiding behind a cloth, He's still right there. Sometimes waiting for us to seek Him. Sometimes whispering and quietly working in our lives. Sometimes shouting to get our attention. But he's there.
I need to have spiritual object permanence. It's easy to come to God in trials. It's harder in good times. It's easy to praise Him in good times. It's harder to continue depending on Him during good times.
I love getting little spiritual glimpses through things like a simple game of peek-a-boo. What a gift.