[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Wednesday, June 12, 2013

[Paul]

Hello and good day, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of our heavenly King-Father and saints of the Most High God, whether it be morning, afternoon or evening where you live and when you read this.  As I write, it's midafternoon here in eastern North America.  I hope that your day is going well or went well.

The story selected for today's daily thought message has an unnamed author, but it is from a compilation of stories called "Stories For the Family's Heart." The story in question is simply entitled "Jump," rendered as follows:

When I was a boy, I told people that my father was stronger than anyone else in the world.

So, I would go out on the front porch and roar to the neighborhood:  "My daddy's arm is as strong as a truck! The strongest man in the world."

In those days a cherry tree grew in our backyard.  This was my hiding place.  Ten feet above the ground a stout limb made a horizontal fork, a cradle on which I could lie face down, reading, thinking, being alone.  Nobody bothered me there.  Even my parents didn't know where I went to hide.  Sometimes Daddy would come out and call, "Wally? Wally?" But he didn't see me in the leaves.

I felt very tricky.

Then came the thunderstorm.

One day suddenly, a wind tore through the backyard and struck my cherry tree with such force that it ripped the book from my hands and nearly threw me from the limb.  I locked my arms around the forking branches and hung on.  My head hung down between them.  I tried to wind my legs around the limb, but the whole tree was wallowing in the wind.

"Daddeeee!"

There he was.  The branches swept up and down, like huge waves on an ocean, and Daddy saw me, and right away he came out into the wind and the weather, and I felt so relieved because I just took it for granted that he would climb right up the tree to get me.

But that wasn't his plan at all.

He came to a spot right below me and lifted his arms and shouted, "Jump."

"What?"

"Jump.  I'll catch you."

Jump? I had a crazy man for a father.  He was standing six or seven miles beneath me, holding up two skinny arms and telling me to jump.  If I had jumped, he'd miss.  I'd hit the ground and die.

But the wind and the rain slapped that cherry tree, bent it back, and cracked my limb at the trunk.  I dropped a foot.  My eyes flew open.  Then the wind whined and splintered and sank, and so did I, in bloody terror.

No, I did not jump. I let go.  I surrendered.

I fell.

In a fast, eternal moment, I despaired and plummeted.  This, I thought, is what it's like to die.

But my father caught me.

Now, in such a storm, the tree which was our stable world is shaken, and instinct makes us grab it tighter:  by our own strength we grip the habits that have helped us in the past, repeating them, believing them.  We'd rather trust what is than what might be:  that is, our power, our reason and feeling and endurance.  We spend a long time screaming, "No!"

But always, God is present.  God has always been present.

And it is God who says, "Jump."

Thank you, Wally, for this insightful article.  Reading it reminded me of the time when Peter and the other apostles/disciples were out fishing, and Jesus said, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." We have to do the same, in faith believing that Jesus will be with us, even in our own cherry tree or wherever we may hide from the storms of life that inevitably will come our way.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul