"It's Mine"

What a blast I had in the grocery store today! It was a store that had those small-size carts that little ones can push; so each of my granddaughters ended up pushing her own grocery cart. Fortunately it wasn't a very populated store because little Julia (2) was not very adept at steering or maneuvering her cart and her mom and I have some sore ankles to prove it.

But the funniest part was when we pulled our carts up to the checkout and Julia saw us unloading our food onto the counter to get the items scanned. She started putting up such a fuss as we put her items on the belt. She grabbed the veggie hot dogs from her cart and wouldn't let go of them for love or money and was quite vocal with her objections, which included a little "not happy" foot dance. "It's mine. It's mine," she firmly announced.

The only solution seemed to get the dogs scanned quickly, so we could hand them right back to the about-to-lose-it toddler. Fortunately, the clerk was quick about it and handed it right back to her, but we still had to figure out how to extricate the "hot dogs" from her possession and convince her to leave the cart by the door.

Her mom, who seems to be an expert at handling these episodes, had it all figured out. She got out a big, refrigerated water bottle from the grocery bags and handed it to her while we tenderly explained that Grandma was bringing the dogs home for Grandpa's supper. With sister's example of leaving her cart by the door, she seemed to cut her losses and go with the offered substitute water bottle. Besides, the water bottle was so big, she needed both arms and all her strength to hang on to her new possession and lug it to the car.

How many times do I behave like a selfish toddler? I feel like all I have belongs to me, when in actuality, God owns it all, and everything I have is just on loan from our Creator God. Yet God, like a patient parent, shows me the "Substitute" for my selfish ways. I just have to hold onto "It" with both arms and with all my strength and lug "It" all the way to heaven.