Treehouse Faith

Here’s the thing.

There was a deal on ABCMouse. $5 for the first two months. “It’s like stealing!” my dad would say-  so of course I signed up. I’m not one to turn down a bargain. Neither are the hundreds of thousands of parents stuck at home that are now downloading every educational app known to man. 

Colette is bright and already knows her letters, numbers, and most letter sounds. I downloaded the app because I liked the built in rewards system that gives kids tickets for activities completed… and as I said before… it was super cheap. 

So she’s following along on her “learning path” for all of TWO activities before she wants to cash in on those tickets. She’s got 76. Goes into the “Shopping” portion of the app and immediately clicks on the Furniture Store. 

Yes. 

My kid is her mother’s daughter. 

Wants new furniture right out of the gate. 

She sets her sights on a TreeHouse bed combo and immediately starts clicking it. I explain to her that she can’t afford it because it’s 200 tickets and she only has 76. She flies through the app, lands back on the Learning Path and gets to work. Within a half hour, she had the 200 tickets and purchased that TreeHouse Bed! 

Now here’s the tricky part. She thinks it’s real. Uh. Oh. By this time, she was due for a nap and when I told her it was time to go upstairs to her room, she starts telling me “Oh! I get to sleep in my new treehouse bed!” I was a little concerned. 

“No, baby. That treehouse bed is just in your game. It doesn’t actually exist in your actual room here at home.”

Still, she’s all in. “Let’s go get in my room and I’m gonna see my new bed!” Now she’s clasping her hands over her mouth like three year olds do when they’re super excited. Wide-eyed and expectant. 

So we walk upstairs and she tip-toes into her room with a smirk on her face and a twinkle in her eye. “Wow Mommy… My treehouse bed! I love it!”

What?! I swing open her door. I have to see this for myself. 

It’s just her bed. Her normal, non-treehouse bed. 

“But…. Mommy. Hey. I don’t see a slide!” 

It’s then that I finally realized that she’d been envisioning it all in her head. There I was, in the middle of a pretend scenario of epic proportions. I grabbed a long pillow and put it up against her mattress as a slide. She loved it. So thrilled to take a nap in her “treehouse bed”. 

I pray that my belief is that big. When people tell me the promises I have in God aren’t real, may I pursue it anyway and walk through life with anticipation for what’s around the corner. 

My husband put it this way “The child sees this imaginary world that as adults, we’ve lost sight of”. 

The promises of God may look imaginary to people in our lives, but we know them to be real. As real as this treehouse was for Colette. Her belief in this thing had me flinging the door open to see what was on the other side. Even then, I couldn’t see it. 

But I was looking. 

I want Treehouse Faith. The kind of faith that continues to imagine big things during hard times. I want to look inside the word of God and see the prize within. I want to believe in the power of its promise even when others can’t see it. 

The song I’ve chosen to couple with this message is called Your Promises by Elevation Worship.

 

May their lyrics become our prayer this week:) 

Pray

As I walk into the days to come, 

I will not forget what You have done 

For you have supplied my every need. 

And Your presence is enough for me
Doesn't matter what I feel

Doesn't matter what I see
My hope will always be
In Your promises to me
Now I'm casting out all fear

For Your love has set me free

My hope will always be

In Your promises to me

Father, we pray that you would help us to hold onto the unseen. Let us gladly anticipate what’s around the corner. Let us run into the next season of life wide-eyed and expectant. May we lead others toward Your goodness through our unabandoned belief in it! 

Reflect

• Who do you relate most to in this story? Colette or Myself? Explain your answer.

• What promises has God put on your heart and how are you pursuing them? 

Do Something

• Write down a dream God gave you as a child. Have you seen this come to pass?
• Think about someone who’s told you that your beliefs aren’t reality. Ask God to help you forgive them and extend grace to that person. 
• If you’re a parent. Think about practical ways that you could encourage creativity and imagination in your household. Join in on the fun yourself! 

Further Reading

'Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. '- Philippians 3:12-16

'Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. '- Hebrews 11:1

'For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. '

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

'We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)'- Romans 8:24-25