RUN

I remember one spring morning after a particularly brutal winter when our son Zac was about three years old. A warm breeze washed over him as he stood in the open doorway, and he turned to his dad and said, "Do you mind if I scream?" Our little boy had been cooped up for so long he was ready to bound into the yard like a spring lamb. He couldn’t contain his joy.

Sometimes God’s love overwhelms me in the same way. When I lay hold of the joy He sets before me with His mercies made new each day, I want to sing to Him at the top of my lungs and not care if anyone else hears. I want to lie on the ground and soak up the earth’s warmth and watch the clouds make cartoon shapes in the sky. If that sounds childish, I don’t care. I love to get lost in the wonder of God’s majesty.

Jesus knew the value of childlike faith. When 70 of his disciples (baby Christians) returned to Jesus after sharing the Good News with the masses, they were jubilant because "Even the demons submit to us in your name." Jesus cautioned them not to rejoice that the spirits submitted to them, but rejoice because "your names are written in heaven."

At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit (stop and relish that picture for a moment), said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure." Luke 10:21 NIV

Much as we love to watch the unbound awe of a little child discovering his fingers for the first time, God must delight when we, His children, put aside what we think we know so that we can unassumingly, with child-like abandon, embrace God for who He is.

When my dear grandmother was 90 and near to her home-going, I asked her what she wanted to do when she got to heaven. She closed her eyes, smiled and said, "Run." Stricken by polio when she was a little girl, she had watched the rest of the world run and dance past her for most of her life. She loved the Lord with her whole heart, so the image of her running into the open arms of Jesus was one of her sweetest parting gifts to me. Oh, for the day when we will fully realize our Father’s "good pleasure."