Her beautiful eyes are fixed on the sky and I can tell she is listening closely yet every muscle in her little body is still held taut. I encourage her to relax. Just let all the tenseness drain out of your muscles and let me hold and steady you.
It’s a beautiful summer’s day and we’ve gone to the community pool to cool off. My granddaughter is an active five-year-old who loves a challenge. After swimming back and forth from the side of the pool to my measured distance out into the pool, she creates a challenge by asking me to step a little further away each time she completes a swim out. I can see her tiring physically, but mentally she was grimly determined to continue to swim a greater distance with each attempt. About this time I realized there was a teaching moment in the midst of her challenge. After a few more tries, I introduced a new challenge. How to float. How to let go of her efforts when she becomes tired and just rolls over onto her back, relaxes and floats.
As I hold her tiny lighter than air form above the waterline, I can’t help but realize this teaching moment is also one for myself. My memory reaches back into past times in my life where though mentally and physically fatigued, I would doggedly push myself to continue despite the ache in my bones and the fog in my head. Sometimes my anger would even become the tired fuel I would spend to accomplish checking off one more "to do" on my mountainous list.
In retrospect and through the eyes of faith, how much easier if I had learned how to relax sooner in my life. If I had taken some time to fix my sights on the one who holds me above the waterline and encourages me to rest into Him, much like I was encouraging my granddaughter to do.
Gradually I begin to see her struggle lessen as she begins to trust my support beneath her. She experiences her buoyancy as she turns her efforts down and floats. Her smile lights up my world.
We can light up His world too. No matter the tempest, storm or workload. No matter how high the waves or strong the wind, we can relax our struggle and release it into His loving hands. We can trust him as my granddaughter trusted me. Our trust in Him can be the smile on His face and a light in the world.
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Matthew 11:29-30 The Message (MSG)
