Heaven's Weather Forecast

This evening I was talking with my oldest daughter–a second grader–and she was tellling me about clouds and the weather. It's been the subject in her science class the past few weeks.

"Daddy, the weather was really, really warm today, it was pretty windy, and the humility was really high."

"The what," I asked?

"The humility was high."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah," she said, pausing "the hudminity, or whatever it is that makes things sticky."

I had to laugh. A simple variation in one word radically changed the meaning of the whole conversation.

What a different world we would live in if the humility was high. There'd be a lot less aggression and more peace; less hatred and more forgiveness; less arrogance and more kindness; less revenge and more mercy. We'd be more willing to admit we were wrong, and we'd be less self-absorbed.

In Philippians 2:1-4, Paul writes, "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

Paul then urges us to become more like Jesus and follow in his steps by quoting an ancient hymn called the Carmen Christi (Phil 2:5-11). This hymn describes Jesus' willing descent from the splendors of heaven to a life of humble service and an outcast's death, but ends with his triumph over death and his reinstatement as LORD of all.

In other words, Paul is telling us that the way of humility is the path to becoming more like Jesus.

So thanks, Kiddo, for that reminder to be more like Jesus. And I pray that your life will always have high humility.