Friday, December 30, 2005
"I don't wanna go." When our boys were little, that was sometimes what they would tell me when we were out in the woods where it was totally dark - and a little scary - for them, of course, not me. But I would reach for their hand and their little hand would instinctively reach up my way when we hit a dark stretch, and they'd grab on tight. Now the strangest thing happened. Once they had their father's hand, their feet started moving again. They could go where they otherwise would never think about going.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Hand You Never Outgrow."
At the other end of life's spectrum from little boys was where my wife's grandfather was. He was 94. He was unable to remember very much, including my wife - his granddaughter. She called him one day and said, "Hi, Granddad." She, of course, told him her name, and she said, "I love you." He was clearly not very happy about this. "I don't know who this is." Some strange woman was calling and saying she loved him! She reminded her Granddad of his only son and that she was his daughter. "I don't know you." Finally she just said, "Well, Granddad, remember this. Jesus loves you." To which he replied, "Now Him I know!" Interesting. After 94 years, not much of which he could remember, there was one person whose love and presence he was still aware of - Jesus.
That is not a religion. That's a relationship so real that it is there for you through every conceivable stage of life. For my wife, it was real when she used to walk that dark stretch of road from her house to the school bus as a little girl. They lived way back in the woods, and that last stretch was beyond where she could see Mommy, or the neighbor, or anyone. Knowing those trees could be hiding the bears and the mountain lions that she knew were in their area, she would just start to sing, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me."
This Jesus - this Savior - is literally the hand you never outgrow. The hand that is there for you as my hand was there for my boys in dark and uncertain places. Our word for today from the Word of God - the familiar words of the 23rd Psalm - they're a description of a personal relationship with God that I hope you have - or if you don't - that you will begin. These are the words my own father wanted me to read to him the day he was going into that heart surgery from which he would never recover. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want ... Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" - that sounds like a 94-year-old grandfather I knew, and my father facing life-or-death surgery, and a frightened little five-year-old girl on the dark stretch - "I will fear no evil. For you are with me."
This deep, personal, unloseable relationship with Jesus Christ is what I pray you will begin. It's the relationship your heart has always hungered for. This is the Savior who'll be with you through the turbulence of being a teenager, the pressures of parenting, the lonely moments of being single, the darkness of depression, the struggle of disease, or divorce, or disaster, or facing death even.
The hand of Jesus is reaching to you right now. Look closely and you'll see nail prints in that hand. They're there because of the price He paid to tear down the wall between you and God - His brutal death on the cross to pay the death penalty for your sins. Now He waits to forgive you; to be the one constant in your life and your eternity - no matter what changes.
If you're ready to grab the hand of Jesus to be your Savior, your lifetime friend, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." I hope you'll visit our website yoursforlife.net. There you'll find a very simple explanation of how to begin this personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You can read it or you can listen to it. Or if you would like to get Yours For Life in print in the mail, just call us at 877-741-1200.
For an elderly grandfather, for a very sick father, for a frightened little girl, for you, the same never-leave-you person - Jesus. His hand is reaching. Won't you grab it? He will never, never let go.