Nursery rhymes and scary stuff

Many people have put up decorations, told creepy stories, watched spooky movies and selected costumes during this Halloween season. Although not particularly Halloween-related, while going to church recently, one of our 3-year-old granddaughters sang the “Itsy, Bitsy Spider” nursery rhyme song.

You’ve probably heard it, “The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout. Down came the rain, and washed the spider out. Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain, and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.”

Often, children repeat songs over and over again. So I kept hearing about the spider going up the spout and getting washed back down again, which got sort of spooky, especially when I thought to myself, “Will that spider never learn to go up the outside of the spout?!” Then I recalled Bible passages about learning, or not.

God has revealed himself to humankind in various ways, culminating with sending his son Jesus to teach (Hebrews 1:1-3; John 1:1-5, 10-18; 3:16-17). Jesus’ life and teachings have been recorded for us, once for all time, so we can know how to please God (John 16:5-16; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Jude 1:3-4).

Before Jesus came, people longed to know what’s now been fully revealed (1 Peter 1:10-12; Hebrews 11:39-40). That said, even today, people respond to it differently as the Parable of the Sower describes (Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:1-15).

Some, like the hard path, don’t even want to hear about God’s grace because they’ve allowed themselves to be blinded to it by Satan (2 Corinthians 4:1-8). While this is scary regarding the hard pathers’ eternal future (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12), Christians shouldn’t lose heart about sowing the seed because the majority are receptive to the word.

This majority is comprised of three soil conditions, two of which don’t allow it to grow in their life as is expected of Christians – those indwelt with God’s Holy Spirit (1 Peter 2:2-3; 2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Peter 1:3-11; Romans 8:9; Acts 2:38-39; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16).

The rocky grounders limit the word’s growth in their lives so they cannot fully understand it and grow (2 Timothy 3:6-7). The thorny grounders don’t realize their problems aren’t worse than anyone else’s, many of whom overcame their obstacles to remain faithful (1 Peter 5:8-9; Hebrews 11:32-40; 12:1-4; 1 Corinthians 10:13).

In either case, developing a strong root system is necessary to compete with weeds and be productive just like the good soil described in the Parable of the Sower (Psalm 1:1-3; James 1:21-25). God truly wants everyone to be like the productive soil and come into the perfect loving relationship with him for eternity, but the majority still won’t achieve that (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter3:8-9; Matthew 7:13-27).

Regarding the repetitive singing of the nursery rhyme, we should admire the itsy, bitsy spider’s persistence in going back up the spout. That’s God expectation of Christians described in 1 John 1:5-9 – trying to do what’s right, including seeking forgiveness when we fall.

Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan who writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected].