Safe in Our Father's Arms
My daughter began swim lessons again last week. I say “again” because she initially started in Okinawa the week after she had turned one, but because we moved back home we were unable to continue our maintenance lessons. So she hasn’t seen the water in eight months… until last week. She was getting to be comfortable in the water right before we had left; however, since it’s been a while she has had to reacclimate.
Although the lessons are short (ten minutes long), she cries and shouts ‘mama!’ the duration of the lesson. It absolutely breaks my heart hearing her call for me like that. It is neither something I will get over nor ever become desensitized to—mamas are wired to feel a physiological response within them when their child is in distress, cries, and/or is calling for them. We can’t not respond. Her coach is a wonderful woman who allows me to stand poolside, and she’ll love on her and excitedly exclaim, “Yay! You are so strong and brave! Look, mama’s right there!” to encourage her. To which I always smile at my daughter, clap for her, and say, “Great job, baby! You’re doing so good! I’m right here. You are safe.” That part I try to say the most: You are safe.
The reality is—she is under the care and supervision of a highly-trained, professional swim coach, and while I am not there in the water with her, I am standing right beside her. My eyes do not come off of her. And, while it is highly unlikely that I will ever have to, I am ready to jump in and rescue both my daughter and her coach if I need to. My daughter is safe. As excruciating as those ten minutes are hearing her cry, I much prefer this be the water scenario than any other where I cannot get to her.
And just like that, through the simple complexity of ten-minute infant swim lessons, the Lord has opened up yet another part of His heart to me. What He must feel when He hears me cry, my pleas for Him, my calling out to Him. What He must feel when He sees me in a heap on my tear-soaked pillow, begging for Him to take away whatever it is I’m in distress over.
And all the while, He is standing right beside me. He has not taken His eyes off of me. He’s not taking pleasure in “watching me suffer,” as I have accused Him of before in my distress. He is a Good Father.
Just like I don’t take pleasure in hearing my daughter cry and scream my name during her swim lessons… I know she is safe. I am standing right beside her. If I were to jump in the water and rescue her right then and there, what progress would be made with her ability to swim and save herself from a potentially life-threatening water situation? I would be hindering her in the long run. The refining of her ability to swim and persevere would be stunted. And, though she does not realize it, she is doing it… she is flipping herself over onto her back to float, she is holding herself up in the water, she is learning breath control, and spitting the water out of her mouth. She is doing it!
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 1:6 | ESV
Perhaps you need that encouragement today. That your Father has not left you. That He has not forsaken you. That He does not take pleasure in watching you suffer, but that there truly is Kingdom purpose in your pain. He does hear you. He does see you. His heart breaks with every tear that soaks your pillow at night—or wherever it is your tears fall the heaviest. He knows your voice; like a mother attuned to the different cries her baby releases to communicate hunger, discomfort, boredom, etc., God knows the unique cadences of our own cries. And He knows precisely how to comfort and satisfy each one if we allow Him to.
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
Deuteronomy 31:8 | ESV
He sees you, dear friend. Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, sees and knows YOU. And He reveals that to us throughout all of His word, but I wanted to highlight this particular account of His calling of Nathaneal to follow Him in John 1:43-48:
“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaneal and said to him, ‘We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ Nathaneal said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ Jesus saw Nathaneal coming toward him and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathaneal said to him, “How do you know me? Jesus answered him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’”
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you…”
Jeremiah 1:5 | ESV
“My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
Psalm 139:15-16 | ESV
One of the songs I have chosen for this week’s RFM is called “Madly in Love With You,” and it’s very dear to me. I would listen to it over and over again when I was in college and just soak in the words. While they’re not Jesus’s words and don’t claim to be, the lyrics are conversational from God’s perspective (like a father speaking to his child) and conveyed exactly what I had been feeling at the time, and also what I needed to hear and understand. One of the verses says:
How do you think it feels to hear you screaming out my name?
While all the while I’m trying to open up your heart.
I see you when you cry yourself to sleep,
And it’s tearing me apart.
He is a Good Father. Of course it breaks His heart when we’re calling out to Him through tears. Christ called out to Him, too, there in the Garden of Gethsemane, through blood. So He has utmost compassion for us in our times of need and understands the desperation we feel at those times (although there is absolutely no comparison to what He endured). Even still, He does not write us off or turn His back on us, for the Scripture says He will never leave us nor forsake us. Jesus also said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18 ESV). He is kind; He is compassionate. You are safe.
Through parenting and comforting my own little girl, the Lord has actually used that phrase, you are safe, more so to speak to me. That I can trust Him, and that I really am safe in His arms. As are you, friend. The reality for us is—He is YAHWEH, King of kings and Lord of lords, Creator of the universe, Alpha and Omega, and He calls us HIS. Nobody and nothing messes with those whom the Holy Spirit has sealed in Christ Jesus, per our Father’s command. Like the reality of my daughter being safe at swim lessons under the supervision of a highly-trained, professional swim coach (needless to say she is first and foremost under her Heavenly Father’s protection), we are sealed beneath the wings of Almighty God. His eyes have never left us. His love has never departed from us. He has never left us alone. We are safe in our Father’s arms.
Scriptures for Further Study:
“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6 | ESV
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
Deuteronomy 31:8 | ESV
“Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life…For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.”
Psalm 54:4, 7 | ESV
“So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’”
Hebrews 13:6 | ESV
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
John 14:18 | ESV
