Over the Christmas holidays I got to spend a week with my
granddaughters. Although I had seen my
youngest granddaughter take a few steps previously, this was the first time
that I had seen her walking. Once she
started walking she couldn’t be stopped.
She seemed to be walking constantly every waking minute. She especially liked to walk up and down the
stairs.
Watching her walking everywhere and trying to keep up with her reminded me of the time when my oldest granddaughter first learned to walk. Although she could take a few steps, what she really wanted to do was to hold my hand and walk. She wanted to go outside and walk up and down the sidewalk holding on to one finger. Holding on to my finger she had all the confidence in the world and could walk for hours. One afternoon we spent an hour walking outside as fast as her little legs could go. I kept expecting her to get tired of it, but she wanted to keep going. If I even tried to walk toward the door of the house she wouldn’t go that way.
When we went inside after more than an hour of walking, she kept going to the door and pounding on it. She wanted to go back outside and walk some more. Because I was the one who would take her walking she wanted to spend a lot of her time with me.
I had always loved my granddaughter, but getting to spend so
much time with her made me love her even more. Walking together made us both
closer to each other. I think that there are a lot of parallels between her
experience learning to walk, and our experience being born again. When we are
born again we are baby Christians and we have to learn to walk spiritually.
God used that illustration in Hosea 11:3 where it says: “I
taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms”. In many places in the Bible
the idea of God helping us walk with Him are brought out. In Psalms 37:23,24 the
Bible says: “The steps of the godly are
directed by the LORD. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they
stumble, they will not fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand.” What a beautiful
illustration of the Christian life. We are to walk with God and he has promised
to hold our hand.
Do we learn to walk with God in the same way that we learned
to walk as babies, by trial and error?
Do we stand across the room from our Father and take wobbly footsteps
towards Him as he calls to us from a distance "Come to Daddy”. Do we fall down repeatedly as we try to get
it right? God has a different plan for us. Psalms 56:13 says “You have
delivered my soul from death. You have kept my feet from falling, so I will
walk with you in light among the living”. God doesn’t want you to fall. He
wants you to hold his hand.
As parents we want our children to learn to take care of
themselves; to stand on their own two feet.
We realize that we won't be there for them forever. They need to learn
to take care of themselves. So from babyhood to adulthood we are continually
learning how to take care of ourselves. God's
goal for us is very different. He is our Eternal Father; He is always available
to us. Instead of wanting us to become increasingly independent, He wants us to
learn to be increasingly dependent on Him. He wants us to walk with Him, our
hand in His. He doesn't want us taking off on our own two feet. I believe that
as human beings this is one of our hardest lessons.
Have you ever taken a
walk on a busy street with a two year old? You point out to him the pretty
gardens you are walking past; the beautiful flowers, the scampering squirrel,
the pretty song bird; but he's not interested. He's too busy trying to pry free
from your hold. He can't stand holding your hand. He's a big kid now. He wants
to walk on his own.
We as Christians are often like that. Instead of clinging to
our Father's hand, we have this tendency to take off on our own two feet. There
are so many charming things that take our attention from Him. Sometimes we
don't like to be restricted by holding his hand. Some of those Bible principles
cramp our style. Sometimes we let the cares of this world pull us away from
Him, and instead of holding tighter to His hand, we let go.
Whenever we let go we inevitably fall down and hurt
ourselves and then we sink into discouragement and we look to God and we say
"Father, what's this all about? Why did you let me fall? Why didn’t you stop this from happening to
me?" And then He looks at us sadly and says "Child, you let go of my
hand. You took off on your own. I am able to keep you from falling, but you
must keep your hand in mine."
We don’t know what is before us. The future can be a
frightening thing. Our only safety is in
walking with Christ, our hand in His.
