This past weekend, while at Easter Son-rise service my wife took a photo of my daughter laying her head on my shoulder. When I saw this photo, so many thoughts and emotions flashed before me. My oldest daughter is married and has 2 young kids. She has a husband that she relies on and leans for his support and I know that he gives that to her. The more I looked at this picture the more I see.
At first glance you might say how cute or that’s sweet and I would agree with you. As a Dad, here is what I see. I see a child who is laying their head on their father’s shoulder and is so relaxed that she is able to let her guard down. She knows that her Dad is there, and nothing will happen, and that Dad is there to protect her. For that short moment, all of her worries have been put aside and she is at peace. Does that mean that the worries and struggles are gone? Not at all, they are there but she knows she knows Dad is there to help with them. There is nothing like being in the moment of your father. The more I look at this picture, I see and know this is what our Heavenly Father calls us to do. God calls us to lean on Him and when we rest in him we fill more protected and we know that He is there to help us. This doesn’t mean the struggles are gone but we know He is there and we are not alone. When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point, then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of those people who do not even know God. We come to our wits end, showing that we don’t have even the slightest amount of confidence in Him or in His sovereign control of the world. To us He seems to be asleep, and we can see nothing but giant, breaking waves on the sea ahead of us. However just like my daughter laying her head on my shoulder and trusting in her Dad, shouldn’t we do this with our Heavenly father? Doesn’t our creator want what’s best for us? All we have to do is trust on him. We may not understand or not see the bigger picture; we have to trust the love of our Father.
1 Comment
Scars
A few days ago, my grandson was with me. As we were sitting on the couch, he looked at my leg and said “Pops, what happen to your leg?” as he was pointed to a scar on my leg. As I looked down at this scar, it was like it was just yesterday. I picked him up and sat him on my lap and shared with him the story of how it happened. I shared with him that my brother and I were throwing the baseball in the yard and when my brother threw it to me, I missed it. The ball went all the way out into the cow pasture that was behind our house. To get to the baseball I had to climb this old, tall fence. When I made it the top, my foot slipped off the fence post and my leg slid down the barbwire opening my leg with a 6-inch cut. As I continued this story, I shared with him that my Dad told my brother and me not to climb the fence because he didn’t want us to get hurt. Then he looked at me and said pops you’re like me you don’t always listen. I laughed and said your right buddy I don’t. Don’t we all have scars where we had to learn the hard way? We all have internal scars that we either learned from or are learning from. Let’s think of the scars that teach us the most. What about the scars on the hands and feet of Jesus? Yes, I have scars from things I have done and pain that I have caused but think of His scars and what they have delivered from it. Shouldn’t we be thankful of His scars, because without them we wouldn’t know the heart of our Farther. |
AuthorJust a man who follows Christ and writes for fun.. Archives
September 2024
Categories |