AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN

…God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.*” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; what can man do to me? **” Hebrews 13:5,6 NIV

Adventure!

Riding in the car. I was maybe 4 years old, maybe less. Small enough to stand behind the driver’s seat. My daddy was speeding down a narrow dirt road through a thick forest. I leaned forward to stare upward, chattering my wonder at the giant trees towering high against the overcast sky.

Too much for my mama. She turned and snarled, “If you don’t sit down and shut up, we’re going to stop this car and put you out and leave you here.” Just then the car skidded around a bend and slammed to a stop. A dark, wind-whipped lake stretched far and wide to the horizon.

Terror.

Fast forward. I’m 21, driving her somewhere, my 5 & 6 year old niece and nephew in the back seat. Déjà vu. She turned to them and said, “If y’all don’t sit down and shut up, Grace is going to stop the car and put y’all out.”

“No, I’m not.”

Stunned, she stared at me. I’d never in memory talked back to her. I said no more, nor did she.

Nothing is more terrifying to a vulnerable child than the threat of abandonment. And, once our eyes have been opened to the war raging around us, nothing could be more terrifying to a child of God than the threat of abandonment in the middle of this spiritual battlefield called Earth.

“But fear not,” He tells us. “It ain’t gonna happen. You know why? It’s because I love you, and I want you. It’s because I worked too hard to make you, came to far to save you, paid too much to redeem you. Add to that, I LOVE YOU!”

 

Avi, thank You for this promise, and thank You for teaching me how very much it’s worth. In Your holy name, Amen

* Joshua 1:5

** Psalm 118:6,7