The Law was a Babysitter

"So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came." Galatians 3:24

Mom and Dad go over the instructions, give the lay of the land, leave some phone numbers, and say goodbye with kisses on heads. "Be good." It's fun at first, being with the babysitter, because she's spunky enough and likes to play, and it's kind of exciting to be at home without Mom and Dad. We pass from one toy to the next, cars, coloring, hide and seek, a movie.

But it's all short-lived. Because when we try jumping on the couch, she tells us to stop, and the tone of her voice is different than the one she was using during hide and seek. When we pull each others' hair, she gets angry. And when we refuse to go to bed, forget it. Patience runs thin. She shouts. We don't like her rules, and she doesn't like us bending them. I can't explain why, but it's hard to be a good boy with her around.

We lay in our beds awake, unhappy, waiting, listening for the sound of a car in the driveway. In a matter of hours, the babysitter we loved has left us longing for Mom and Dad to come home.

Not because they let us jump on the couch; they don't. Not because they let us pull hair; we don't even try it when they're around. But because even when they discipline us, we are confident in the love we know, a love that can only exist between parent and child, a love that's been proven time and time again in their faithful care of us. It's a love our babysitter naturally lacks.

The law was a full-time babysitter that left us yearning for a Father. 

"God sent forth his Son to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." Galatians 4:4-5