The toddler is unhappy…
He wants mama to carry him…
Clearly the toddler knows how to walk…
but every time Mama tries to set him down….
He pulls up his feet…
He cries.
“Just take the first step,” the exasperated mama says…
Mama bends toward the ground…
The toddler pulls up his feet like an airplane retracting its landing gear…
“Your legs will get stronger when you walk on your own,” mama says and tries one more time…
The toddler cries and pulls back his legs again.
He doesn’t want to take the first step.
It’s a lot easier to be carried by mama than to walk on his own…
How much is our relationship with God like that toddler’s relationship with his mama?
Couldn’t God just carry us forever?
It’s scary to put our feet down and walk…
Scary to take the first step…
When all we want to do is to stay with Jesus…
To let him carry us…
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
Forgetting that Jesus also says to go…
To go into the world…
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Mark 16:15
To go make disciples
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Matthew 28:19
To go into the world and share God’s love …
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14
Where can we find the courage to take the first step?
To go where God commands us?
In the spirit God has given us…
For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7
In the promise of Jesus…
…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20
And Finally…
in the promise of God Himself…
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
