Giving Ourselves Into His Hands |
by David A. DePra |
| The other night I opened up new windows I had installed in my |
| boys bedroom. It was finally warm enough at night to do so. These |
| windows were much bigger than the ones which had been in before. |
| The reaction my boys had was to worry that someone would |
| crawl into their bedroom through the windows. (The boys are 5 and |
| 8 years old) The old windows were not even half as big, and were |
| the tilt-out type. There new ones were more conventional, and if |
| someone wanted to, they could easily crawl in. |
| It is too bad that we live in a world where kids that young think of |
| such terrible things the minute their environment is changed. But |
| they did react that way. And I had to try to convince them there was |
| no real danger. |
| First, I showed them how high up off the ground the windows were. |
| My little one said, "But what if someone gets a ladder?" I said, "No |
| one is going to haul a big ladder up to our window and try to get |
| in when there are cars parked outside, proving we are home. They |
| would make too much noise." But then he said, "But what if they are |
| quiet burgulars?" |
| That was my 8 year-old. My 5 year-old was more afraid of a |
| bear getting into the bedroom. He was convinced it was possible. |
| And then there were the bugs he was afraid of. When I showed him |
| the screens on the windows, he said, "What if really small bugs |
| got through the screen?" |
| I could see that no matter what I said to the boys, there was |
| something which was more powerful: Fear. Their emotions were |
| stirred up. And because they were too young to understand how |
| this or that could not happen, there was nothing to combat the fear. |
| There was no line of reasoning I could use to loosen it's grip on |
| them. |
| Finally, I asked them, "Does daddy look worried about this?" |
| They said, "No." I then said, "If I'm not worried about it, why are you |
| worried about it? Do you think you know more about it than I do?" |
| They said, "No." Then I asked, "Have I ever lied to you?" They |
| again said, "No." I said, "Well, I'm not lying to you about this. So |
| why don't you believe me? You do not understand how what I am |
| saying can be true. But please believe it is true, not because you |
| understand, but because I'm the one saying it." |
| I was asking my boys to put aside their fear and their inability |
| to understand, and to simply believe me. And after a few minutes |
| for them to calm down, they did believe. They went to sleep solely |
| on the trust which they placed in me. |
| This is a picture of our relationship with God. Often in our lives |
| we are afraid and confused. And because we have a lot of |
| growing to do, we cannot understand what God would like to say |
| to us about things. So He cannot speak. But He does ask us, "Do |
| I look worried? Have I ever lied to you?" We must answer, "No." |
| And then He asks us to simply trust Him -- not because we are |
| able to understand -- but simply because we believe and trust |
| Him. |
| The result is rest. We can, in type, go to sleep, knowing that |
| nothing is going to get through the window into our bedroom unless |
| it first goes to God. |
| Sometimes trusting God feels just that way. It is as if God is |
| asking us to go to sleep and thereby put ourselves at His mercy |
| in the situation. Of course, the kind of sleep God requires in these |
| matters is not a carelessness or a restless sleep. It is a peaceful |
| sleep. We fully give ourselves over into His hands. * |