A preschool cousin came to visit my childhood home when I was in middle school. He loved the green, sloping front yard that overlooked the lake, so he took off running and laughing. The potential energy of his body and his oversized toddler head and his position on the hill overcame the relative inert energy of his tiny little legs and their ability to keep up, so he tumbled forward, face first with his little body flipping over him, headlong. We looked on, frozen, unable to get to him to keep him from falling and we waited for tears to go pick him up after the front flip. However, he gathered himself back up with sheer joy on his little face, squealing with delight. Then he started running down the hill again, and yep, once again flipping over face first and yes, getting himself up with delight, only to do it again and again. Soon our fear for this kid’s safety turned to joy as we joined in with this tiny human’s screaming laughing happiness. This delighted, grass-stained little boy would continue with his hilarious, hedonistic, seeming self-flagellation, until my aunt finally caught up with him and scooped him up, kissed his little face, and cleaned the grass off of him. I’m sure he slept well with a smile on his face, with maybe a few bumps and bruises, on his long car ride home that day.
Wow! What a picture of a joyous life… running kamikaze into life’s potential with its certain tumbles awaiting us, knowing our frail humanity will fail us, but not letting the fear hold us back. Oh to jump back up after our stumbles and tumbles, mess-ups and mistakes, squealing with delight and running headlong with reckless abandon into the next challenge. What if we did the same thing with our relationship with God… not fearing the potential hurts and disciplines of becoming more holy, but engaging fearlessly, joyfully in the delight of connection with Him trusting in His grace? Perhaps we can learn proceed a bit more cautiously, with some healthy respect for who He is, so that we are not corrected beyond repair, but preserved to love Him again and again, more and more, as well as those people that He places in our lives who also stumble and mess up.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that if we have a connecting, loving relationship with Jesus, we can run straight to our All-Powerful, Heavenly Father with no anxiety. The writer says, “Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].” Hebrews 4:16 (AMP) As we move fearlessly toward Immanuel, the God who is glad to be with us, joy begins to overcome our fears and we learn to love God and others like He does.
Hang in there people. God is glad to be with us. I’m praying for us all.
