A cool February day. Gray clouds cover the blue sky I know is up there somewhere. My heart is heavy. My mind is full of to-dos. And a carefree toddler runs all around me.
Trying to pause my heart and mind I sit with her on the floor. She has a puzzle. Handing me the board she searches the floor for the missing animal. Looking for the elephant. Turning her head back and forth. “There it is!” She proclaims, “Behind the frog.”
The elephant was hiding behind the frog. I let that soak in. The elephant is hiding behind the frog.
How can a huge elephant be hiding behind a small green frog?
But isn’t that the truth? We do that. We try to hide elephants behind frogs.
Our struggles, our wounds, our sins the elephants we hide. We hide behind makeup, good works, and church attendance. The frogs, small actions we do to try to cover up and hide the pain going on inside. But are the frogs really working? Are our struggles, wounds and sins covered?
Only Jesus Christ is big enough to cover up our elephants. Only Christ can make whole, make clean our struggles, wounds and sins.
What elephants do you need to bring before God? What frogs are failing?
This lesson from a simple toddler puzzle stirs my heart. Convicts my soul. However, it is beautiful. The Holy Spirit moving in us. The Holy Spirit revealing the elephants we are hiding behind the frog. Letting Christ take the place of the frogs we have chosen for so long is not easy. Being vulnerable makes us feel naked. In this nakedness is where we can find freedom. Where the heavy elephants we have been carrying can be released. And the frogs can become sincere works of faith and trust.
1 John 2:2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. NLT
Proverbs 28:13 Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. NIV
Romans 11:6 And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved. NLT
Psalm 18:2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. NLT
