Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?

So goes an old spiritual, and its query seems to be put before me this day, too.

Like dominoes in a row falling, so were the guided impressions of my day yesterday, leading to what I hope is wisdom for tomorrow.

I saw a bumper sticker, when first I pulled out of my subdivision, that said, "Oh no, not another learning experience." I laughed because I've said those words to myself many a time. But this day those "lessons" processed before me like floats in a parade, and I knew I was being taught these particular lessons by the Greatest Good know to man, therefore I was humbly attentive. Just for the fun of it, He used common and unexpected tools to do the teaching, but isn't that so often His way of teaching? ("You're using that to teach me something?" Modern-day equivalents to Samaritans should be honored for their status as illustrations.)

First, I noticed that I was seeing the word butterfly far more often than I usually do, and seeing it even while traveling a very typical route for me. The place most prominent was on a sign that read: "Anyone can become a butterfly." And beside it, a graphic that looked like a snaking river of bright blocks, a thread waiting to be woven into a coat of many colors. Now, butterflies have presented themselves to me in the past according to their traditional symbolism: that of transformation; but somehow seeing the written form made the symbol's appearance even more "approved" in its transforming power.

Later, in conversation with a friend, the topic of the Harry Potter books came up, as we reflected on a "debate" of a sort that he was having with another mutual friend regarding the overall benefit/harm of the book series. His comment was that insidious harm can be found in the books in such ideas as the absence of parental influence with this famous boy. The impression is given, he said, that the boy and his friends figure out the answers to their troubles without need of the guiding influence of strong parents. Now I agree that absentee parents are a bane of contemporary society, and this is a thing rightly condemned; but I also felt something deeper needed uncovering in this valuable observation of a child with remarkable powers to prevail despite the absence of strong parental figures. Strangely, I'd only that morning had something in my Bible study prompt me to consider the following: as I watch my eldest go out into the world this year, and as I think of the days when my own relationship with God went through tenuous times, making the fact that He drew me back into His fold something just shy of miraculous, I must ocnsider whether I believe God is able to do the same for my children should they choose to wander into similar dangerous territory. Do I leave them unguarded, so to speak? This is not to say I am indifferent to the call to cover my child in prayer nor to offer advice when appropriate. But the point I was compelled to consider was not so much related to the potential state of the child's soul, but to my own. Do I require personal significance in the life of my child in order to believe God will be able to reach him? If so, I am on dangerous ground. Could I accept that my child might prove even be better off without me, should a sovereign God so decree, and especially if our separation were the result of a sacrifice made out of my love for him?

I began to think of the fact that Harry Potter's orphaned status is explained in the books as being due to his parents sacrificing themselves to protect him a dark, evil lord. I thought how a wise teacher told him that the reason he as an infant survived a deadly attack by that dark lord was due to his mother's sacrificial love, a thing more powerful than any magic. Then I thought about the fact that drawing a readers eyes away from such a story for this particular reason would also necessitate that the reader reject "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." In this story, too, the children are separated from the parents due to the parents willing sacrifice. The father is at war and the mother lives in a danger zone. She sends her children into the country for their safety, and so they find the portal to Narnia.

Then my mind drifted to the only story we have of Christ at the same age as these characters in these other works. Converse to the other two sample tales of separation, in this one it is the child who effects the separation, and the parents admonish him, but he seems surprised. "Don't you know I'd be about my Father's business?" he asks them. Could it be they had not yet accepted the limitations of their own position of significance in his development as Messiah? And it makes me wonder if that mysterious death of his earthly father, Joseph, might have had some sacrificial component to it--so that He might learn how to endure a later, larger separation from a Father.

Finally, this morning, my Bible reading moved me naturally into the book of Daniel, where again the question seems palpable: how much do the youths really require their elders in order to serve and please the God of their fathers? Oh, it is so easy to read the old stories blind to their assurances, to ignore the deepest lesson Sovereign God plants in both the sacred and secular tales of our own day. In fact, we read the story of Daniel and his companions, strong children, to our own children, along with the accompanying history of the same group in the fiery furnace. We teach our youngsters to act out the details while singing little songs to commemorate this wonderful tale, but in our daily lives we prove that we as adults don't believe it at all. Read and see: did the children fail miserably when removed from "Godly influence," or had the blend of their parents' and God's tutelage--for however brief a span--been sufficient for them to stand firm?

Dan 1:1
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.
Dan 1:2
And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.
Dan 1:3
And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring [certain] of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes;
Dan 1:4
Children in whom [was] no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as [had] ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
Dan 1:5
And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.
Dan 1:6
Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:
Dan 1:7
Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel [the name] of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego.
Dan 1:8
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
Dan 1:9
Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.
Dan 1:10
And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which [are] of your sort? then shall ye make [me] endanger my head to the king.
Dan 1:11
Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
Dan 1:12
Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.
Dan 1:13
Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.
Dan 1:14
So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.
Dan 1:15
And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.
Dan 1:16
Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse.
Dan 1:17
As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
Dan 1:18
Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.
Dan 1:19
And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king.
Dan 1:20
And in all matters of wisdom [and] understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians [and] astrologers that [were] in all his realm.