Rewiring the brain

It's 9:40pm and Krassi, who goes to bed around 7:30 and falls asleep pretty much right away, is still up.

Probably eight times now, he's been crying and whimpering. Either Matt or I has gone in to him, and he immediately breaks into the biggest grin. ;)

My response to my biological children who have known from day one (and before) that mommy or daddy is always near have gotten a different response from us: good night, sweetie. It's time to sleep. We'll see you in the morning.

With Krassi, who for over nine years had his brain wired to learn that when you cry at night no one comes. No one comes.

No one comes.

We are getting to witness almost before our eyes new neurological pathways being formed as he cries, and someone comes. And not just any someone, but Mom or Dad. The same Mom and Dad that have cared for all of his needs for the last four months. And in his grin I read something like this:

I knew that would happen! I just thought that if I cry here and now that something different is going to happen from everything that I was taught was true about the world. I wonder if it will work again if I try it again. I'll wait a little bit longer and then try...Ha! What do you know! It worked! 

Gives you a whole new picture of what Paul is talking about in Romans 12 - Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...

The more I live this life, and the more I know my God, the more I am convinced that the "renewing of the mind" that he's talking about is not just a subtle shift in certain areas, but an all-encompassing transformation of the framework from which we view the world. Like Krassi, everything we knew about life, and what it is to really be alive, to love, to be gets turned on its head when Jesus takes over.