The Gruffalo's Child - Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

While this may be the sequel to the much loved Gruffalo story, in our house this was the favourite for one of my children. Despite my best efforts to teach them that you needed to read the Gruffalo first then this one, they always insisted on this one first. I guess the only thing to beat a Gruffalo is a tiny Gruffalo?

Here's what happens:

The Gruffalo - now all grown up - has a child of his own and warns her many times not to leave the cave because there is a big bad mouse out there who will eat her. Convinced she knows better and that the mouse does not, in fact, exist, she waits until the Gruffalo is asleep before sneaking out. She find that she should have stayed in the cave!

While I would love this post to be about how children should do what their parents tell them, sadly this is not the thing that we are going to focus on (shame).

No, the human truth that this beautiful story tells us is this:

We are prone to wander.

From the moment Adam and Eve ate the fruit we have been off on our toes trying our best to wrestle God out of His throne and get ourselves in His seat of power.

I do not need to tell you this is true if you have ever met a toddler. When we owned a Time Out Step we had a set conversation with the child who had spent some time on it. When their time was done one of us would go to them and ask;

"Who is in charge of everything?"

The child would answer (if it was a good day) "God"

"And who did He put in charge of you?"

Again "Mammy & Daddy"

"Why are you sat on the step?"

And the child would tell us what they had done wrong and why they ended up sat there. And then we would ask if they would like to apologise.

I cannot tell you how many times we got right up to the last question and then it all had to start over again. The timer, the screaming, the silent replacing of the child, the wishing you had been given time out instead of the kid because 36 minutes of silence by yourself was gold. Sometimes we wouldn't get past the first question, because the child had shouted at the top of their lungs "ME!" when asked who was in charge.

Our defiance runs deep through our veins. Just like the Gruffalo's child. She didn't need any encouragement to disobey and wander from the path her dad was trying to steer her on.

And guess what - the Bible know this better than we do.

We have strayed. Not just all those years ago just before we made a profession of faith but each and every day. We just keep defying and defying and defying. I can't imagine it was long before the Gruffalo's child was off again, doing the very thing she had been told not to do. Not because she is a particularly naughty Gruffalo, but because she just can't seem to help herself.

What's amazing about this verse is that it is a great human truth coupled with the greatest of God truths - we have turned away but the Lord has not. In fact He has laid on Jesus the punishment we deserve for that very act of turning and running off -

"And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all"

Wander though we may, God never wanders off. In fact He pursues us in our wandering. He knows where we're off to and the trouble we will get into when we get there and He willingly takes the punishment of that on Himself. While I may have wished to be on the Time Out Step when battling my toddler, it was out of selfishness I wanted to be there. But not God, He isn't taking my punishment because "Well, it's just easier", He's taking it because He wants me back in the cave - the place I am supposed to be. Because He loves me.

It is a true wonder that Jesus would willingly die on the cross. One that we really will never be able to fully comprehend this side of eternity. This is especially mind bending the more you realise how often you wander off.

I'm not sure how long you will spend on the Time Out Step today. Or how far your little Gruffalo will wander during the course of their life. But know this, God never wanders off. And there is always a way back.