Father God

Another sunny day here. Walking along Seal Beach, I suddenly noticed a dad and his 2 year old boy. The dad was staggering along under the weight of a backpack of provisions, a beach blanket draped over his crooked arm and a thermos flask in that hand. A full load.
He pushed through the sand, blown into small dunes, looking back at his boy and encouraging him to keep pressing forward. The wee boy was making heavy weather of it and struggling to keep up.
I heard the dad ask if he needed carrying. An immediate nod and the dad turned back and scooped him into his free arm. The boy began chattering immediately, happy in the strong arms of his dad.
A perfect picture of Father God. How often we think of the burden of the world's distresses and tragedies which he carries, and yet he always has an eye out for the most vulnerable, the ones whose journey seems onerous or too much. He encourages them to keep going, sometimes through the Bible or prayer and sometimes through friends or family who come alongside. But when the going becomes too much, he pauses and picks up the ones who just can't go on another step.
Reminds me of the footprints poem. Only one set of footprints in the sand doesn't denote that God had abandoned us, but that those were the times he carried us.
Some of us may have our life's journeys characterised by just that one set of footprints.
But that is ok, because Jesus instructed us to abide in him. To trust in him. To lean on him and not on our own understanding.
Independence is not the goal.