The Kid on the Back

I took my son on a bike ride. We were cranking and banking through some fun turns around the lake when it occurred to me how much he has to trust me to sit back there hanging on to my waist. I began to remember moments from my own childhood – scary times with Dad, driving up a snow covered logging road to go hunting, or even just sitting by a fire in the dark woods on a camping trip, my child’s imagination going wild in the wilderness. I remember what I thought at those times. I always felt that Dad wouldn’t put me in a situation where he wasn’t in control. I felt that probably he needed me to be safe even more than I did. I thought – and this is going to sound weird – that if I went, Dad went with me; and I found my identity in him, so I had no reason to be protected if he wasn’t. I think the summary of all that is that trust didn’t entirely mean that I felt safe from harm. It meant that I knew Dad was with me and in control. Whatever happened when I was with him was ok.
Well then of course I want to have this reliance as a grown-up on my heavenly Dad. Who in fact, is in control in ways that I can’t comprehend. I know that He doesn’t promise physical protection, but spiritual protection. I know that whatever I go through, He has gone through and is doing it now, with me. When He takes me into a dangerous situation, He does just that - TAKES me. He doesn’t SEND me on my own.
Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him, because His protection reaches beyond what I know here. My name is carved in His hands, written in His heart.
His hands are on the brake and throttle, I’m just riding on the back, cranking and banking and hanging on.
© 2003 rod lewis