“Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm…”–Deuteronomy 11:2 (NIV).
The small wooden chair is almost 90 years old. How do I know? Because it belonged to my daddy, who would have been 91 this past April. He received the small chair as a present on his fifth birthday.
Several years before my daddy passed away, I asked him if I could have the chair. It wouldn’t fetch a fortune, even if it is considered an antique. No amount of money would lead me to sell it.
I’m sure my grandmother used the chair as a spot for time-out to discipline my father when he was a child and misbehaved. I know, as the youngest of four boys, that my daddy was probably spoiled. I also know he was quite mischievous and probably warmed the seat of the wooden chair many times.
I had asked for the chair before he died because I knew it would be a reminder of my father that I would treasure. There’s nothing fancy about the homemade piece of furniture. Paint spots of different hues grace its simplicity. After my parents married, my mother had used it at different times as a step stool when she was painting cabinets and walls. However, that only adds to its history.
The Israelites, who were brought out of captivity by God, had a common history. They were witnesses to God’s power and His deliverance out of the hands of the Egyptians. The Hebrew people saw the Red Sea part and they fed off the manna from heaven.
The Hebrew people would forget time and time again what God had done for them in the wilderness. Each time they ran into trouble, they would cry out to God for help. When they deserted Him and began to worship false gods, God still came to their rescue. Their children and their children’s children would only hear the stories of His grace, passed down from generation to generation.
I was not a witness to my daddy’s scoldings and time-outs in the tiny wooden chair but its presence in my house today serves as a wonderful reminder just like the stories passed down through generations that remind us of our Heavenly Father’s discipline and love.