All our children have passed through a can’t-sit-during-dinner phase.

One night, I put scarves on their chairs so they could seatbelt themselves down! If we weren’t attentive, one child would slip away without eating, one wouldn’t eat anything with vitamins, and all of them would leave their dirty dishes.

Finally, I made a list of rules and taped them to the kitchen wall. The message is clear. Break the rules: no dessert.

The Jewish people were God’s first family. Before the rest of the world gave God a second thought, God began to train up His Jewish children. He took them away from the tyranny of Pharaoh and led hundreds of thousands of them in the desert, in close quarters, for forty years.

It was no simple Sunday dinner. God had to make rules.

God’s family has grown. Every day He lays out a feast for us to enjoy. Even in the midst of our darkest days, there is something sweet to sample, something beautiful to see, something refreshing for our souls.

If we seek Him, serve others, live humbly, and let Him father us by attending to His rules, then when this life feast is over, He has promised an incredibly good dessert for us to enjoy too.