Submitted by Mike Cain:
During a typical summer of youth ministry, several years back, I was on a Jr. High Summer Retreat. One of the events of the retreat was tubing down one of Michigan’s many “cold” rivers. Some were in canoes, but most of us were lounging in the tubes. Little Bailey Mayer, the 8 year old daughter of our sponsors, thought it would be cool to float on the tube with Pastor Mike, so she got out of her parents canoe and went down the lazy river with me. Bailey had just met me on this trip, and I was surprised she would want share a ride with this old guy she barely knew. But we had a great time as we talked and laughed and got to know one other. But ahead in the river were some larger rocks, a tree or two and the water was becoming a little more turbulent than the past few miles. Up until that time, Bailey was putting her trust in a flotation devise and a guy she had just met! I told her to hang on, and as we got closer, I could see Bailey’s smiling face now become becoming doubtful, and the trust she had previously put in the tube and myself seemed to be disappearing. As we approached the rapids, Bailey looked around anxiously and yelled “DADDY!!” Marty, her father, just happened to be close behind in his canoe! And just before we hit the rapids, I found the shore, waited for Bailey’s dad to arrive, and a relieved little girl crawled out of the intertube, and into the safety of the canoe! But more importantly, she came near to the person she had the most love and confidence in, her daddy
Isn’t this a lot like life? We get in the interubes of work, school, relationships and family, trusting the people who surround us and floating down the calm rivers of day to day living. And then when the water gets rough, and rocks and tree stumps show up, we quit looking at the people, the water and the intertube and call out to our DADDY!! And guess what, just like Marty was there for Bailey, our Heavenly Father is there for us. He answers our call, and wants His children to call out His name. Jeremiah 33:3 says that if we call out to Him, He will answer. Proverbs 3:5 tells us to trust in the Lord and He will make our paths straight. What promises!!
Once we got around the rapids, Bailey got back in the tube with Pastor Mike. But through the rough part of our journey, she needed and wanted to be carried by her daddy! Why don’t we learn a lesson from Bailey, and make it a practice to trust our loving Father, especially during the hard times of our lives!
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Huh that was odd, my first post didn’t work. Anyway I wanted to say that it’s nice to know that someone else also mentioned this as I had difficulty finding the same information elsewhere. This was the first place that shed some light on this subject for me. Thanks.