I want to share a theological term with you. Here it is: "accommodation of revelation." Let's call it AR for short. What does it mean?

Accommodation of revelation means that God shaped the way He communicated Himself to human beings so that human beings could comprehend. If an alien being landed in Bermuda, it would likely cause quite a stir, but if the alien could speak Bermudian ? Hm. Perhaps that would cause an even greater stir!

I once heard an illustration. Supposedly a man noticed one day that a bird had flown into his living room. The bird quickly became quite terrified and proceeded to beat itself by flying into the window glass trying to escape. No matter how hard the man tried to capture the bird and save it by chasing it, he failed, because the bird only became all the more terrified. Finally, in exasperation, the man exclaimed, "If only I were a bird, I could show it the way out".

That is the spirit of AR. The Bible says, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world." God took the form of a human being and lived among human beings as a human being. That is what the name Immanuel means ? God with us. Jesus used this same approach when He came telling parables. He used the familiar to communicate what was unfamiliar. This helpful means of communicating was used by a master teacher to impart difficult and challenging spiritual concepts. It's not just a New Testament concept either. God used an international treaty document as the form in which He gave the law to Moses. Why? Because the format was something Semitic peoples in the nations at the time already understood; because they already understood it, the form itself helped convey the more important truths that transcended the format of agreements between earthly rulers ? that is, between sovereigns and their vassal servants ? to instruct how God wanted the nation of Israel to relate to Him.

Now, whether or not you believe to be fact these Biblical assertions, the concept of AR is a helpful one.

Let me make an application as a psychologist and parent. Jesus did not demand the right to be worshipped as God, and He set aside position and prestige in order to connect with the people He was trying to save; perhaps we should learn from that example and be willing to do the same with our children. In fact, the most effective parenting comes from copious amounts of AR.

Get down on the floor with your kids. Play with your children using their toys. Do the same things over and over and over again simply because they love to hear the stories and repeat their experiences with you. How many parents have heard the words, "Do it again!?" And how many have moaned, refusing out of boredom? To do that is to demand that the children become adults and live among their parents as adults. You know what? That comes soon enough, and when it does, there is no way to go back and retrieve what has come and gone. When children are young, it is the wise parent who accommodates him or herself to the needs of the child, and who, in many ways, becomes a child in order to communicate with children. Frankly, I think it's one of the blessings of having children that we get, as adults, to remind ourselves of what it's like to play. Adults think of content, what might be communicated through play, but young children experience the process. Thus, it's not about the content; it's all about the form in which any "content" might emerge, the play itself. It's revealing yourself to your children through playing with your children, and there is nothing that can accomplish the bonding, the connecting, and the relationship building like accommodating yourself to them in that way.

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