What fun, and what activity, when you have seven grandchildren for Christmas all under the age of eleven! The youngest, Lila, was well cared for with three older female cousins. The girls wanted to play with her, mother her, and protect her. Lila has two brothers and, at the age of two and a half, she is fully capable of taking care of herself and has the vocabulary of a twenty-year-old! She seemed to enjoy playing with her cousins and letting them mother and protect her, as she ascended up and down the stairs.
The last night we were all together, the adults were seated in the family room talking. The girls were going up and down the stairs to the game room. At one point, as they approached the stairs to go back up, Lila looked at Annalise, the oldest, and said, “Would you hold my hand?” Annalise responded, “Sure, I will hold your hand.” They took the first step and Annalise said, “Lila, hold my hand.” To which Lila responded, “No!” Annalise asked, “Lila, don’t you want to hold my hand?” Lila responded, “No! I hold my own hand.” She then grasped her right hand with her left hand and promptly walked herself up the stairs. We all began to laugh as we watched her hold her own hand and walk up the stairs disappearing behind the wall.
Lila wanted Annalise’s protective hand and support as she approached the staircase, but then decided she could go it alone. At that moment, I thought just how much she was like me. I want God’s help, but as He reaches down to hold my hand, I decide that I can go it alone. Lila made it to the top just fine without holding Annalise’s hand. But, how much easier and safer it would have been if she had grasped her cousin’s hand and allowed her to help her ascend the staircase? I often go it alone when it would have been easier, and safer, to grasp the Father’s hand and allow Him to help me.
In Genesis 12, we see Abraham deciding that he could “ascend” on his own. Instead of grasping God’s hand, trusting Him to protect him and his family during the famine, he heads for Egypt. While there he lies about his relationship with Sarah. He was fearful that he would be killed and she would be taken due to her incredible beauty. God strikes Pharaoh and his household with a great plague. The king figures out that it must be because Sarah is Abraham’s wife. What he had done by taking her for himself had greatly displeased God. He called Abraham in and gave his wife back, then told him to go. He was escorted out of Egypt. Because Abraham decided to “go it alone,” he endangered his wife, Pharaoh’s family, and was disobedient to God’s Word. Things were much harder for Abraham due to his decision to “ascend” by himself.
Once he settled back into the land God had directed him to, we see him taking God’s hand and accepting His help. “He went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.”
I noticed that when Lila approached the top to descend, she quickly grasp her cousin’s hand. Going down the stairs was a lot more frightening and harder than climbing up the stairs. In my own life, when things get really hard, when I approach a steep descent, I quickly reach out to God for help—like Lila did with her cousin and Abraham with God. How grateful I am that at times He allows me to “hold my own hand”, knowing that when things get really hard I will reach out and find that His hand is right there to hold and help me. How patient He is with this stubborn child who often thinks she can “do it alone.”
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 NASB
“But You, O Lord, be not far off; O You my help, hasten to my assistance.” Psalm 22:19 NASB
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1NASB
Blessings!
dianne