The Child and the Iron – Hiding From God

You can probably guess how this story is going to go, just by the title of this blog post, but I'll tell the story anyway because the ending is pretty profound.

In the March 2016 Ensign, Katy McGee shared a handful of parenting experiences that taught her gospel principles. One of these experiences involved an iron. Sister McGee was ironing while her three-year-old daughter, Lucy, was playing nearby. Sister McGee had to step out of the room for a moment, but before she did, she made sure to warn Lucy not to touch the iron.

"I was sure Lucy understood," Sister McGee wrote, "so I quickly slipped out of the room. I returned a moment later, and I heard a whimper from behind a chair." Of course, we all know who was whimpering and why.

At first I was confused that she hadn’t heeded my warning. Then I felt heartbroken that she would hide from me after making a small mistake, afraid she had lost my love and confidence. I knew she was powerless to take the pain away, and only I could help her burned finger feel better. I comforted Lucy, and as I rushed her to the bathroom sink to ease the pain, the Spirit whispered to my heart: “This is how Heavenly Father feels when His children fail to heed His warnings and won’t allow Him to ease their pain when they need it most.”

Like Lucy, we all sometimes foolishly, childishly, disregard the warnings we've been given, and we often get burned as a result. When that happens, we sometimes turn away from God, forgetting that His love will always exceed His disappointment and that He would always rather heal us than punish us. We have no reason to hide from God. Even if we wilfully, rebelliously, deliberately disobey God, there is no reason to try to hide from Him. First of all, it wouldn't work. God is omniscient; we cannot effectively hide from Him. And second of all, even if we could hide from God, we'd probably be worse off if we did. Hiding from her mother wasn't going to heal Lucy's finger, but returning to her loving arms did.

God knows that, over the course of our mortal journeys, each of us is going to touch the iron. When we do, we have a decision to make: Will we turn to God for help and healing, or will we try to hide ourselves behind a chair? When we foolishly forgo God's warnings, I hope that we will at least be wise enough to confess our sins and have them forgiven instead of covering them up and keeping the wounds they've caused us. God wants to heal us, but He can't do that unless we come to Him. To get healing for all our ailments, including the ones we've caused ourselves through sin, we need to not try to hide ourselves from God and instead come unto Him, repenting. God loves us, and He is eager to heal us, and He certainly doesn't want us to continue to suffer needlessly as we pointlessly try to hide from Him.