I have a friend who recently celebrated his first Father’s Day. As he was reflecting on his baby’s first few months of life, he described the latest excitement in their household: the child figuring out how to take his first steps while Dad held his hands. If you’re a parent, you know this feeling; it’s simultaneously thrilling and terrifying to watch your little one discover their newfound mobility!
But…have you ever noticed that there are not one, but TWO stages right before a child learns to walk independently? The shift is almost imperceptible if you aren’t watching for it. In the first stage, the steps they take aren’t actually their own, but yours. You hold them up, maneuver them forward, and help them to discover the limbs they’ll use themselves later on. You grip their chubby little fingers tightly, but they don’t grip back. They’re too busy giggling as they teeter and totter. Yet even though they aren’t holding on to you, they never actually FALL – because you’re holding onto them. And there’s no awareness of the danger that belies them if you let go, either. They simply trust that you’ve got them.
In the second stage, those little movers have actually become aware of their own legs and feet, and they’ve realized that these nifty gadgets have the ability to carry them places. With great caution and concentration they take those tentative, wobbly first steps while clinging for dear life to your hands (even if you try to let go to help them practice, they won’t release their death grip for anything!). Doubt and fear have now entered the equation – doubt that you’ll catch them if they stumble, and fear of what’ll happen if you don’t. They hold on to you, because they don’t fully trust that you’re holding on to them. Read that again: They hold on to you, because they don’t fully trust that you’re holding on to them. Sounds a lot like our relationship with God, doesn’t it?
If I asked you which of the two stages is symbolic of the way we should strive to walk with the Lord, you might be tempted to say the second stage – to hold onto Him for dear life with everything we have. And in some ways, you’re right! But I think God is calling us to live a lot more in the first stage, and a lot less in the second. When life gets scary and times get tough, we tend to reach for God’s hand and grip it tightly. We cling to Him, perhaps not because we trust Him, but rather, because we don’t. Will He really catch me if I stumble? And if He doesn’t, what’s going to happen to me?
Let me ask you this. When was the last time you walked through life with complete trustin your Father?
There’s a verse in Isaiah 46 that I love:
“Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am He, I am He who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (v. 4)
Every time I read that, I get this awesome mental picture of myself at 90 years old. I’ve got (very distinguished!) gray hair, and for some reason I can’t quite manage to explain, I’m wearing a robe that looks like something out of a biblical reenactment. I’m holding a cane in one hand, and the other is being held by a much larger, stronger-looking hand, belonging to Someone whose face I can’t see. Despite my old age, I’m walking with a pep in my step and a confidence not my own.
I’m walking like I know who I am – because I know Whose I am.
God desires for us to walk with Him like my friend’s son walked with his daddy – in complete trust and with wholehearted assurance that no matter how we stumble, we will not fall. His grip is firm, and His hand is plenty big.
When it comes to your relationship with your Heavenly Father, which stage of “learning to walk” are YOU in? Who’s holding who?
