This past Sunday I shared a message with our church body which came to life for me personally a week after I had put it down on paper. My wife and I were in California to visit a dear friend of ours who has stage 4 colon cancer. The next day we were scheduled to board a cruise liner for a 7 day 6 night cruise to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary (I’m shocked too). The evening before we were to board ship my wife wanted to get something to eat and suggested we go to this Mexican restaurant she noticed down the road (would you expect anything else) After eating a fine meal we got up to go back to our hotel room and while walking to our car, my wife somehow found a dip in the grass we were walking on and took a hard fall, breaking her ankle in 3 places. Needless to say, our 40th anniversary cruise was not going to take place, as we had to head back home, only to learn 4 days later my wife would need surgery on her ankle.

My message, which I had already prepared a week before we left for our cruise, spoke about the precious memories I had in my heart when our two children were small and for whatever reason, they would ask daddy to pick them up and hold them. Sometimes it was because they were tired or too lazy to walk or other times it was because they had hurt themselves or felt fearful. Many times they didn’t have a specific reason as to why, they just wanted daddy to hold them.

Speaking to His disciples, who had been arguing amongst themselves as to who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus called a little child over to His side and answered His disciples question, but not quite the way they wanted it answered (the Lord is always good at doing that). Matthew 18:3 “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” You see, the disciples had gotten themselves so caught up with trying to know which of them would be the greatest in heaven, that they missed the simplest truth.

Little children aren’t always trying to understand everything, they just trust and believe what their parents teach them, which is a huge reason why as Christian parents, we need to be busy instilling Godly principles into our children’s hearts while they are still very young. Little children don’t yet understand the rat race we adults allow ourselves to get caught up in, the thought of being a successful person in life, self- sustained and able to do anything. You see, little children understand when they are tired, scared, weary, or just want to be close to their parents, they simply say, “Hold me daddy” and once that happens everything is just fine for them.

Let me share this quote I came across as I was preparing my message for I believe it speaks all we need to know about this matter. “The great temptation of spiritual growth is thinking we have all the answers and thus desiring to establish our own path with its own set of rules, we become like the know-it-all-teenager. When this occurs, we must immediately and with great determination, humble ourselves and put to death the rebellious pride which leads us astray. We must trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding. We must daily remember the children we really are and the children we need to become“

As I laid in bed that night after a long visit in the emergency room, knowing my wife was in great pain and our 40th anniversary cruise was not going to take place, I quickly began trying to figure out what the Lord was trying to say to me through all of this, when I suddenly heard this small voice say, ‘Remember the message Leroy I gave for you to speak’ I realized I didn’t need answers right now nor would I have understood those answers anyway. What I really needed was for my heavenly Father, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to hold me in His arms of love, so that is what I am doing.

Let me ask; when is the last time you said to the Lord, “Hold me Daddy” No matter how big we may physically get or how important we may think we are, the Lord still desires to hold us and comfort us no matter the problem. Down the road the answers will come to our question of ‘Why’ and then maybe not. The most important thing is that we know when the Lord holds us, everything will be fine and isn’t that what we really need anyway??