Tobin teaches me about God

Today Tobin wanted to take “the long way” home on our walk. Instead of the straight line down the sidewalk, he chose to take the long & winding (and hilly) dirt path back to our door.

“Dad, I love this road,” he says.

I think about when the last time I thanked God for taking me out of my way to experience something beautiful. God’s roads seem so inconvenient and unnecessary at times. We keep walking.

“Dad, I can’t get up this hill,” he says.

I stop, turn around, and extend my hand. Tobin scrambles up the hill and I grab his hand to help him to the top. All the while I’m thinking “You can do this! This is easy.”

I think about times when I was scared and God says, “Hey, you can do this.” Then I think, how many times have I encouraged my kids to push past their “childish” fears like a parent does. Like the times I encouraged them to jump in the pool and swim to the bottom, or climb to the highest point on the monkey bars, or to let me push the swing to breakneck speeds. To me this is fun and challenging. I’m helping my kids grow and master new things.

They, however, are usually terrified.

Must God look at us the same way as I do my own kids? Stopping to turn around and offer a hand, and encouraging us to take the risks that come our way?

What if I, or you, embraced the scary things as another exciting ride with God…instead of the paralyzing, stomach-knotting, vomit-on-my-shoes feeling that I normally get?

What if I ran and jumped knowing that my Dad would always catch me?

I think that would be the key to God’s “exceedingly abundant” blessing. I think I’ll try that for a change.