Comfort Objects (Friday Devotional)

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

- 1 Corinthians 13:8-13

At some point around their first birthday, almost every toddler starts toting around an object of their choosing—usually a stuffed animal or a blanket—from which they refuse to be parted. Their “comfort object” goes with them in the car, in the crib, and everywhere in between, and woe unto the parent who tries to sneak it into the washing machine when their child isn’t looking. My comfort object was an old pillowcase that I labeled “my number one pillow”; Andrew’s is a lovey that looks like a sheep which we call “Sheepy” (we might have been more creative if we’d known he’d get so attached.)

When children start toting their comfort object around, sometimes it concerns first-time parents. ‘It can’t be hygienic’, mom worries, with visions of future doctor’s visits looming in her mind. ‘And will he ever put it down?’, dad wonders. ‘I don’t want my son bringing a teddy bear to his first job interview!’ The good news is that these toys are a natural part of early childhood development, a transition from infanthood’s total reliance on mom to some measure of independence. Eventually, they grow out of their comfort object and learn how to cope without it.

Maybe it was these kinds of things Paul had in mind when spoke about the “childish ways” that he left behind upon becoming an adult. The church in Corinth was, in Paul’s eyes, overvaluing their spiritual gifts, and Paul sought to remind them that those gifts, while important, were not eternal. Just as their childhood toys were indicative of an early stage of their development, Paul says that spiritual gifts are something that will pass away when Christ returns and God’s kingdom comes. What never ends, however, what abides even when everything else changes, are faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Like a parent or a Corinthian Christian, we still have a tendency to overconcern ourselves with things that are ultimately transitory, while undervaluing those things which are eternal. We’ll browse social media for 45 minutes at a time and wonder where the time went, but lose focus after 2 minutes in prayer. We’ll gladly dole out hundreds of dollars for the newest phone, but resent when the church asks for a special missions offering beyond out normal tithe. We’ll work 80 hours a week when the job calls for it, but get impatient when our child asks to read with us for five more minutes.

In a world that’s always changing, God calls us remember what endures and to build our lives around those eternal values instead of on a worldly narrative that’s long on style and short on substance. So few of the things we consume ourselves with, our grownup comfort objects, will matter when the kingdom comes—perhaps the time has come to start focusing on that which abides forever.