As my boys continue their love of superheros, the subject of identity seems to keep coming up. The other Saturday morning Josh yelled to me, “Mommy, when I turn off the lights, I am like a REAL SPIDER! See this! In the dark I am crawling on the walls.” I told him, “That is pretty amazing.” Poor Danny who doesn’t much care for the dark was yelling “YIGHT! YIGHT!” I said, “Danny, we can’t turn on the light for a minute because the spider is showing us his tricks.” Josh paused for a minute and then said, “Uh. . . Mom? I’m not actually a spider. It’s me. Josh.” I had to laugh- as if I could ever forget this little boy was my son. A few days later Josh came to me with gloves on and pulls them off just enough to reveal that he has taped a strip of paper on each hand right in the spot where Spiderman shoots his webs. He whispers to me, “Now no one will know my secret identity.” I had to tell him that mommies always know.
I think that’s a beautiful part of our job as parents. We get to truly know our kids. Their flaws. Their gifts. We see them grow and develop and our hope is that our kids will always know they can come to us and trust us to love who they are. Not just the face they present to the world, but even their secret identities.
It helps me to know that God loves me that way, too. I can try to present a superhero appearance to the rest of the world, but God knows and loves the Clark Kent or Peter Parker side of me, too. While God values my obedience wants me to serve him, He also knows when I fail and it doesn’t decrease His love for me. What an amazing job we are given to communicate that same kind of love for our children, whatever their secret identity.