Freedom at it's Best!

“I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire.  He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.”  Psalm 40:1-3.

When my children were toddlers I loved when they were learning to walk.  Going from the limited life of crawling and scooting to the freedom and liberation of getting where they wanted to go was freedom at its best.  When thinking deeper about life before walking for them I remember how Michael especially never wanted me to leave the room.  His frustration and unhappiness was filled with tears and screaming until I returned.  I guess he felt that if he couldn’t see me, I wasn’t there.  I would reach down to his tearstained face, bringing him close to me and reminding him that I was still there...that he was still loved...that everything would be just fine.  I can only imagine his happiness when he realized one day that he had the ability to not only stand but to move forward despite the toys that laid all around him.  For sure, there were incidents when he would fall due to the cluttered path.  But he learned that if he watched where he walked he could navigate around the clutter.  Many times I would go ahead of him picking up anything that would make him stumble.

We have a Father who hears our cry and goes ahead of us making our paths clear.  We see all of the emotional clutter around us and become fearful that we are alone.  We face obstacles up ahead and can’t see any way to get through it without falling.  Our heart fails when we see how difficult the path is going to be.  But then, God turns His loving face to us and wipes our wet cheeks.  He brings us near to Him and comforts us in our despair.  He has already worked everything out up ahead and cleared the path for us to walk it out, steadying us at every step. 

Our part is to reach out in our spiritual infancy and allow the greatest parent there ever was to comfort us, love us and carry us.  We were never meant to carry our burdens but were created to carry Christ within us.