Christian Living

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Shortly after a new family settled into our neighborhood, their oldest son approached my oldest son while he was in the drive-way shooting hoops. The boys spent the next several hours hanging out.

My son later spoke about his friend, referring to him as “New Kid.”

“Does ‘New Kid’ have a name?” I asked.

“I guess,” my son said with a shrug, and there ended the conversation. He had no clue what New Kid’s name was, nor did it matter. They got along fine—why bother with details?

Now, I’m not on a male bashing tirade. I think you guys are wonderful, but have long been perplexed by your lack of interest in details.

My husband, John, is a great example. Numerous times he has come home from work and announced that so-and-so had a baby. When I asked the obvious—boy or girl—he answered with, “Oh, I don’t know. I just heard they had it and everything is fine.”

Everything being fine is the bottom line—and that’s why some guys skip the froo-froo details and cut to the chase. Ask a woman about someone’s new baby, and you’ll get a lot more than the gender. A woman will give you weight, length, hair and eye color, APGAR scores and how many hours mom spent in labor. She’ll know the baby’s full name, the correct spelling, why it was chosen and what other names were top contenders.

In other words, a woman will provide the vital details that comprise the bottom line.

Several months after pointing this out to John, he announced that a baby had been born to one of his colleagues. “It’s a girl,” he said, proud that he knew this. “Her name is Tiffany.”

I sent a dress to “Baby Tiffany.” A week later, I received a thank you note telling me how beautiful the dress looked on “Baby Carly.”

Carly?

“How on earth did you get TIFFANY from Carly?” I asked John.

Unconcerned by this annoying detail, he explained, “They both have that “y” sound on the end.”

Women are definitely more tuned in to details. We collect them and we store them, such as our husband’s first declaration of love. Of such events, we remember the date, ambience and weather conditions. We also remember—with amazing accuracy—that marital spat on June 4, 1997 at 3:19 pm in grocery store aisle eight.

Some details are worth remembering and some are best forgotten—and nobody has a more perfect grip on this than God.

No doubt, God is detail-oriented. We only have to look at nature to see His marvelous attention to color, texture, scent and sound. So aware of the happenings on Planet Earth, He sees every sparrow that falls, and has the hairs on our heads numbered. (Matthew 10: 29, 30)

Like an open book, the details of our lives are spread before Him, everything uncovered and laid bare. (Hebrews 4:13) While plenty of people would prefer that some details go unnoticed by God, the wonderful news is that we can sincerely repent and turn away from sinful ones. When we do, God does more than forgive—He forgets.

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34)

“Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” (Romans 4:8)

God is willing to forget certain details and faithful to remember others. Of all the things he remembers, the one that touches—and humbles—me the most is revealed in Isaiah 43: 1: (underline emphasis is mine)

“I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”

Truly, there is nothing casual, impersonal or disconnected about God. “For in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) We were knit together in the womb, our days written before even one of them came to be--by an all-mighty God whose plans for us are detailed and specific. (Psalms 139: 13, 16; Jeremiah 29:11)

And isn’t it good to know that God doesn’t call us “New Convert” or “Baptist Boy”?! Instead, the God to whom mountains bow and seas part is a God who calls us His, and does it by name…

Let’s praise HIS name for it, and honor Him by trusting Him with all the details that comprise our lives.

©Donna G. Morton, May 2007

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