A visual reminder for me

I was standing in church a few days ago and the pastor was inviting people in and talking about what worship means (I could be wrong- I honestly wasn't paying attention at that moment).  


I looked at the people in front of me.  It was this man and his two young children (boy and girl), and their large spiderman doll.  Emelie and I were standing there saying how cute the kids were and admiring the doll. The children were doing what kids usually do in church- the "let me find something to keep me busy because I'm so bored" act.  


At some point during worship, I happened to look down again. And the father of these children had his hand outstretched toward his daughter.  She looked at his hand for a second, and then ran to it and put her face in her father's hand.  


I was dumbfounded.  My only thoughts at that moment were "Wow, what a great visual!  Here is this father, stretching out his hand for his daughter.  Much like God does for us."


God has his hands outstretched toward us, waiting for us to come to Him.  And in turn we are timid and afraid to run and hold His hand.  But He stays there, willing us to draw closer to Him...waiting for us to stretch out our hands and grasp His.  His hands are the safest place that we can be.  They hold us through trials and rejoice with us in our triumphs.  


So what holds us back from stretching out our own hands?  Is it fear that we will be let go?  Is it anger or bitterness?  


Fear that God will let us go used to be the reason why I didn't run to Him.  Today, I look back and wonder what would have happened if I hadn't let go of that fear and trusted God to take care of me.  Would I still be here, able to write this blog?  Anger and bitterness fed into that fear for me. I had been let down and disappointed my entire life.  I had never known unconditional love.  And I had never learned true forgiveness. So for me, all three of those things: fear, anger, and bitterness became this brick wall that I had to learn to knock down in order to run to God.  


But once I knocked that wall down, my life became something that can be used for greater things.  Not just in the future, but NOW.


So what is preventing you from running to God?  Is it fear or anger? Is it that you've never heard anything like this before?  Or is it that you've never even realized that there was Someone out there willing to forgive, love, and cherish you?  


I pray that whatever it is, that you would find Him and realize that His hands will always be reaching for you, you just have to reach out too.  He has great things planned for your life that you can't even begin to imagine.