“Me!” he says…
And struggles to put on his shoes all by himself…
Mama helps him a little…
Then watches and smiles as he runs from one end of the room to the other…
And remembers…
When she held his hands as he took his first steps…
When he first turned over in his crib…
When he first sat up…
Stood up…
Walked…
Ran…
Each a new stage of independence…
Each marking his ever-expanding freedom…
He’s finding freedom …
And he likes it.
“No, Mama!” is his favorite phrase.
Today, he wants freedom from Mama and Daddy…
One day he’ll want freedom from teachers and bosses.
Freedom grows as we mature…
The circle within which others bind us expands.
We sense our growing freedom…
And we like it.
It’s a pattern…
And we expect it to continue…
Even with God.
Sometimes we seek freedom from God Himself…
Running from God…
Thinking we can do everything on our own.
Forgetting we are all God’s children.
Forgetting the words of the song about God’s children…
God’s little ones…
Little ones to Him belong; They are weak but He is strong. -Jesus Loves me-Anna B. Warner
Forgetting what God tells us about our weakness…
… “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness… 2 Corinthians 12:9
And when we stumble…
As we inevitably will…
We hesitate to return to Him, fearing punishment…
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Joel 2:13
Forgetting that He has been waiting for us all along…
…the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and … he exalts himself to show mercy to you. Isaiah 30:18 (a)
Forgetting that our greatest freedom…
Our only freedom…
Our freedom from sin and death…
Comes from God through Christ…
Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin…Acts 13:39
3 thoughts on “Finding Freedom”
This is so encouraging this morning as I read. Thank you brother for the time you take to put our beliefs into everyday experiences.
Thank you for your encouraging comments
We seem to forget….. God is not our care taker. We cannot operate on the face of His creation, intent of going on my way, apparently confident that when we stumble, He will be there, to tend to our wounds, wipe away our tears so we can see the way – forward.
God wants to be our friend – the one who greets us every morning, at least those when we make it abundantly obvious, He is welcome and all He really does is watch over His child.
And then, tomorrow, He is there to remind us that there were other options to those situations when we insist, we know which way we are headed.
We seem to forget, He is our friend, our companion and the One who steps back and cheers whenever it appears that we are finally learning from the lessons He provided – in the beginning.