Throw The Baby Out

Have you thrown the baby out lately?

You know what I mean.

Have you thrown the baby out with the bath water?

I don’t know if you know where the saying came from.  I’ve read that it came from back in the day when people didn’t take daily, weekly or even monthly baths.  When warm weather came, they hauled a bunch of water in and each person got to take a bath in the water.  The father started, then it proceeded to the mother and then all the other members of the family.  By the time the youngest got to take a bath, you can imagine how dirty the water was.  There evidently was danger in losing a young child when the water was thrown out.

We do that ourselves, figuratively, don’t we?

We pay attention to the dirty water  that someone is in and throw them out with it.

We don’t look at the value of someone versus the circumstances that surround them.

We could do that with David, couldn’t we?  Shepherd?  Check.  Killed Goliath?  Check.  Wrote Psalms?  Check.  Man after God’s heart?  Check.  Adulterer?  Check.  Murderer?  Check.

Kick him to the curb.

Shun him.

Banish him.

That no-good, no-account.

The problem with that way of thinking is that God didn’t think that way.

We often think, though,  that is the way God thinks today, don’t we?

I think He thinks far less often like that than we think He does.  And when and  if He does, He doesn’t bother to consult us.

Now, look around.  Who is danger of us thinking that way about them?  Let’s stop right now before we start.

Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Have you ever done something the equivalent of throwing the baby out with the bath water?