So many times, God has spoken to me through my children. Like this week, picking Asher up from preschool.
“Hold my hand and you’ll be safe,” I told my three-year-old before crossing the street, words I’ve repeated hundreds of times over sixteen years since becoming a mother.
Yet, this day they held special significance. Just before getting Asher, I’d stopped at the hospital to visit a friend with cancer. It’s hard to know what to say when the words, “I’m praying for you,” feel so helpless. So insignificant.
But as Asher slipped his squirmy hand into mine, I felt the Lord whisper the same words to me, “Hold my hand and you’ll be safe.”
This summer, a few weeks after bringing my newborn son home from the hospital, I looked down to see Ezra’s tiny fingers clinging to my shirt as if to keep himself from falling. How fragile. How insufficient. Yet, every instinct in his little body told him to hold on. What his infant mind could not comprehend was that it was my arms–wrapped around him–that actually kept him safe.
How like me. When life is overwhelming, I grasp for whatever is nearest. As weak as a newborn baby, I seek whatever comfort I can only to be confronted by my own fragility and helplessness. How wonderful when I realize that God’s arms alone keep me from falling.
“You’re safe in my arms,” I often sing to my three-year-old, holding him at night when he is afraid. “Safe in my arms. You’re safe in my arms, sweet Asher. You’re safe from harm. You’re safe in my arms. You’re safe in my arms, sweet Asher.”
This is what I wish I had said to my friend in her hospital bed. Hold onto God’s hand. No matter how fragile you are. No matter how helpless. No matter how afraid. On this road you are crossing, hold tightly to him with whatever strength you have, knowing that his arms alone are enough to keep you from falling.
You’re safe in his arms.
You’re safe in his arms.
You’re safe from harm.
Safe in his arms.
You’re safe in his arms.
You’re safe.
Or as another writer said, “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! “ Jude 1:24-25.
He is enough, my friend. His strength is enough, not only to keep you from falling but to welcome you with great joy. May you feel his arms holding you today.
