For some time now, I've found many compelling spiritual metaphors in the day-to-day stuff of life. Today one of these metaphors came in the form of thumb-sucking — finger-sucking, really. My little baby girl has discovered that her fingers can be used to pacify her need for milk. This has been amazing to see. My wife and I didn't teach her this tactic. She learned it all on her own and it fascinates me because it's one of her first real discoveries. It's also a bit ironic. You see, she really wants a bottle of milk, but ends up settling for her fingers, at least momentarily. What's really humorous is that she sometimes will prefer her fingers, even when the bottle is right at her mouth.
I guess we're all a little like that.
Just like my daughter has a deep need for her bottle of milk, we all have deeply-rooted needs — things like purpose, affection, community, and contentment. That's why it's so spiritually befitting to see my daughter choose her fingers over a bottle of milk. She really, really wants the milk, but has found a mediocre substitute in her fingers. Her impatience for the milk, whether it's being warmed up or right in front of her, parallels the impatience of most adults. We want fulfillment...and we want it now. If we'll just wait for the milk, God will provide. But we choose instead the mediocre substitutes of life — high-definition this and widescreen that. We find our contentment in the short-term highs, whether it's buying something we really don't need or finding our identity in our career. I fall victim to this pseudo-contentment just as much as the next guy. That's why it seemed so profound to watch as my daughter chose her fingers over the real deal. I believe that the truly meaningful stuff of life is found not in stores, but in the less-obvious places. It's sometimes hard to think of a good discussion with a friend or a walk with your spouse as a path toward contentment. Yet there it is. It's right at our fingertips and we go out and thumb-suck our way to contentment with something else. Poetic conviction has never been so clear.
Here's to choosing milk over our fingers.
