This summer I was involved in a kids’ Bible program at the park. We were working on Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few.” Little by little the words were covered with pictures: hard bricks and destructive atom bomb explosions, few people and enter keys, and lots of gates.

Then one day, when more words than not were covered up, a boy came for his first time. We tried explaining the pictures for him, and taking a few off for his sake, then going over the verse several times, but it was a definite challenge for the poor kid.

As we ran through it one last time, he broke off. “The hippo is wide! That’s why you have a picture of a hippopotamus on there!”

Sometimes you can explain and explain, and you just seem to keep missing the mark somehow. But isn’t that like all of us? There are areas that for some reason we just don’t get. It takes time to ‘click’. I am thankful that the Lord God is patient with us, bearing with our childish lack of understanding, longsuffering with the slowness of our change and growth.

“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:13-14)