For Dads and Moms - Daughters and Sons

By: Scott Tolhurst

I miss being carried. Many years and pounds ago, I could stretch my arms to mom or dad and up I’d go. I would enjoy a free ride and my legs wouldn't have to fight to keep up. Frankly, I have no current recollection of it happening, but I know it did. Family photos prove it. Well now, I’ve progressed from being carried to being the carrier and it’s still a special time. My children and grandchildren loved to be lifted up. All kids do. You find little arms and legs wrapped around mom or dad in shopping malls, along the streets, just about any place there are parents and children. Why? Perhaps the child is tired. Usually, their legs give out long before the shopping is done. Sympathy demands that the child be lifted. Sometimes you carry your child because of a dangerous situation. Crossing a busy street or walking a difficult path may get the small one a ride on shoulders. Often our children get carried simply because it’s fun. The closeness of being eye to eye and the joy of whispers in our ears are the only reasons we need to pick them up. The safest spot in the world is to be held with tenderness in the arms of a loving parent.

What started me thinking of all this is Deuteronomy 1:31. God says that He carried Israel through the 40 years of wilderness “as a father carries his son.” What a picture of tenderness and compassion. Even when Israel struggled to get free and walk on their own, God held on and carried them to the land of promise. God did it for Israel and He does it for us too. He carries us day by day. The times when we are tired, worn out and find it hard to place one foot before another, God carries us.  In situations of danger to body or soul, God lifts us up. When we need to feel close to our Lord and find a sense of security and love, our Father reaches down and holds us close. It doesn’t matter who we are, how big or strong, there are times we cry out to be carried. God does it for us. There may be times that we are unaware of His lifting or we have no recollection of being held. But the fact that we are present today is proof of His embrace. As a father carries his own son, our heavenly Father lifts us to greater heights and makes the journey not just possible, but enjoyable. There is one difference between parents and God. Moms and dads get tired far too easily. We seldom can carry our children as much as they want. Children get too big and soon outgrow the need to be lifted. But God is never too tired and we are never too big.