Supermarket Cannibals and Wolverine

Cute babies do strange things to people. 

Most notably, they tend to turn them into Hannibal Lecter. 

True story. 

We’re at the supermarket waiting in the checkout line and Alanna is looking around with her big, blue eyes.  A woman gets in line behind us and starts making faces at our daughter.  So far, that’s pretty normal. 

We start to chat.

“She’s a cutie!  How old is she?”

“Eight months.”

“Ohhh she’s a pretty one.  I could eat her up.  Yes I could, yes I could!”

The last part of that was said in a high-pitched voice and directed at Alanna.

Wait…did she just say that she wanted to eat my baby?

If I look at the conveyer belt and see fava beans I might just run away.

“No you couldn’t”, I said. 

“Couldn’t what?”

“Eat my baby, sicko.”

I held my daughter tighter.

Ok….that last part isn’t true but I wish it were.

For the present, it’s filed in my brain under, “things-I-wish-I-had-thought-to-say-but-didn’t-think-of-until-later-but-probably-wouldn’t-have-had-the-guts-to-say-anyway-but-man-it-would-have-been-funny”

Anyway…point is, I have an incredibly cute daughter.

I’d venture to say, “cutest ever” but that assertion of fact would just give other kids a complex.  But come on, “cute enough to induce cannibalism” is pretty cute. 

She should have come with a warning label. 

Also on that warning label should have been a caution about baby nails. 

Allow me to give some history.

When I was a kid I liked comic books. 

One of my favorite characters was a hero named Wolverine. 

This superhero, amongst other abilities, had his entire skeleton molecularly fused with a fictional substance called adamantium rendering it nearly indestructible.  As a part of the process, the Canadian government (who had done this experiment on him) also gave him retractable adamantium claws.  The only substances stronger than adamantium are adamantium itself, Captain America’s shield, and, apparently, my daughter’s fingernails. 

As adorable as Alanna is, her nails can do some damage. 

We try hard to keep them cut but, despite their paper-like appearance, our little wolverine has taken a few chunks out of daddy’s face. 

You see, she’s always looking for me and then, whenever she sees me, she gets really excited and reaches for my face. 

If I’m holding her, this involves her carving her initials on the inside of my bottom lip.  But that’s not the point. 

The point is the seeking and reaching. 

She’s always looking for her daddy’s face, and then, upon finding it, she reaches and clings to it….with adamantium fingernails. 

Seeking someone’s face, in the Bible was always the same as seeking the person. 

Not just their presence, but a relationship with them. 

Here are a few examples:

 

“Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.”

-1 Chronicles 16:11 (which David quotes in Psalm 105:4)

 

“My heart says of you, ‘Seek His face.  Your face, Lord, I will seek.’”

-Psalm 27:8

 

After one of my recent adorable (yet bloodletting) encounters with Alanna, I was really struck by the question, “How intently do I seek God’s face?” 

Alanna is always seeking her daddy’s face. 

When she’s eating, she’ll look up until I look back, then flash me a messy, baby foody grin. 

If she’s cruising around the coffee table, she’ll look for my face and say “dada”. 

No matter what she’s doing, she always stops to seek my face, not out of some obligation, but because she loves her daddy. 

These past few weeks have found Laura and me being forced to stop and seek our Father’s face for both rejoicing and comfort.  It’s been wonderful and difficult.  But once our gaze is locked, I pray that I grab on with all I’ve got and don’t look away.