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2 Lessons from a Used Crib
Recently I was in the process of assembling a child’s crib, and I am very blessed to be able to say this wasn’t my first time doing so. All of our children have all spent their nights sleeping in (and based on the scarred railing, gnawing on) this crib. To need to assemble a child’s crib is a massive privilege, to be sure, but it wasn’t until this particular instance of putting it together that a sobering thought occurred to me.
There is a very good chance that someone, somewhere, is disassembling their child’s crib.
This isn’t a sobering thought until you start to consider why one would disassemble a crib. The first reason that springs to mind is the obvious one: one’s child has outgrown the infant’s bed and moved on to bigger and better things. Our own kids had done this, but there are other reasons why one would do so, and these other reasons should give us pause to be thankful and considerate.
Somewhere, someone is taking apart their crib because of a miscarriage.
Somewhere, someone is taking their crib apart because a couple has learned they cannot have children.
Somewhere, someone is taking their crib apart because they have lost their child to a terminal illness or tragic accident.
Somewhere, someone is taking their crib apart because the kids are now living with the other parent full-time.
Somewhere, someone is taking apart their crib because their youngest child has outgrown it and the early season of parenthood has ended.
1. Be thankful.
Once you consider the other side of assembling a crib, or driving to work, or gathering with your brethren to worship, your thankfulness for being able to do so should skyrocket. Don’t ever take for granted what the LORD has allowed you to do today. Instead, begin and end with being thankful. “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Th. 5.16-18).
2. Be considerate.
When you encounter people that you don’t know personally, consider that they could have just taken their child’s crib apart earlier that day. Perhaps that person who was surly in the supermarket to you just lost their job. Maybe that Christian brother or sister didn’t come to worship for reasons you have no clue about. Were our roles reversed, I would appreciate being shown some consideration. “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” (Luke 6.3). Resolve to be the considerate person that some stranger needs to meet.
