I was working in the front yard while keeping an eye on my 4-year-old son. He was messing around on the front porch, but generally behaving, at least as 4-year-old boys go. “Hey Daddy, look what I can do!” Swinging around, I saw his head stuck through the wrought iron railing and a big smile. I laughed and said, “Okay, now get you head out of there before you mom gets home and we both get in trouble.”

“I can’t! I’m stuck!” Rolling my eyes, I said, “You got your head in there, just get it out the same way. Figure it out.”  “I can’t Daddy,” his voice now a bit frantic. “Help me!” Now close enough to get a good look, I had no idea how that kid got his head in between those railings. His head was just too big to fit into that space; the general idea of a porch railing by the way. We tried turning his head at different angles, greasing up his head with hand lotion to help it slip through, even tried prying the railing apart, but it was too strong. Now my son was crying and my blood pressure is rising. We were a sight to see, I’m sure. 

When my son saw me come out of the garage with a hack saw, he started wailing even louder thinking I was going to cut his head off.  It took a while, but I finally got one railing cut through and was then able to bend it enough so he could barely squeeze through. To this day, I don’t know how he did that.

It may not be always be a “kid with their head stuck in a porch railing” kind of emergency, but something is always screaming for our attention. As followers of Jesus, no matter what else is going on, one thing is to always be our priority… especially in the church.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John 3:16, NIV)

My prayer for you, me, and the church is that we will always prioritize the tough and redemptive love of God. That’s what Christ did for us (just think cross) and we are Christ’s church!

You partner on the journey,

Pastor Steve