May we SEE You when You catch us

*In honor of my sweet little girl who has been sick with pneumonia for the past several days, and because my brain is somewhat fried from taking care of said sweet girl, I dove into my drafts to find one that focuses on her for today’s post. This happened over the summer, but was a good reminder for me, especially in light of the past 10 days of sickness. Thank you to those who prayed for my girl. I am sure I will soon be writing a post about seeing God through the precious prayers of others 😉
Deuteronomy 33:27a “The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
“He caught me!” What precious words, spoken from a heart full of child-like faith. My seven year old daughter had just fallen off her scooter. I had been several feet behind her and watched in fear as she wobbled and then fell to the hard road below. I ran to her with one thought in my mind, “please don’t let there be blood”. I handed the dog’s leash to my son and scooped up my baby girl, preparing myself for a bloody knee and scraped up hands. As I took a steadying breath to make myself look, I found nothing. Not a scratch, not a poke…nothing. My daughter looked a little surprised too, but then she said, “He caught me”. The He she was referring to was Jesus. In her mind Jesus caught her, and maybe He did.
As we continued our walk, I wondered, “why, if you could catch her, didn’t you catch her brother when he fell off his bike and had to have 14 stitches?” But then I remembered that although we were four miles from our home with no cell phone when that happened, a stranger gave us a ride to the hospital. And the doctor was worried that my sweet boy broke his jaw but He hadn’t. So in a way, Jesus did catch him. With one hand He comforted and protected my son, and with the other hand, He provided for us in our need.
“OK”, I thought, “but why didn’t you catch my uncle when he was diagnosed with cancer?” My uncle was only 54. He had lived a hard life, but had recently given his life to the Lord, however, lung cancer ravished his body and ended his life far too soon. But again, a still small voice reminded me that my uncle had come to know Jesus as his Savior. He had made things right with his family, and was surrounded by those he loved most as he drew his last breath. The moment he was gone from this world he was in the arms of his newly found Savior. So Jesus definitely caught him.
I realized that what looks like falling to us, may really be us landing in the Savior’s arms. We, as Christians, will fall and get hurt. We will bleed, we will hurt, we will fail, and one day our bodies will die. But never will we fall from our Savior’s arms. The One who can use “all things for the good of those who serve Him”, can use our pain, our illness, our failures for His glory.
Sometimes falling is a good thing. May Jesus catch each one of us today.
“Lord, please open my eyes to see you in the hard times as well as the good. Please help me to trust You to catch me no matter how hard I fall.”