We took our family to Coolidge Park on Saturday. It was a perfect day for a walk and a ride on the carousel. So, Michael stayed on the sidelines with the camera and I helped our three kiddos get on the ride. Isaac picked a frog, Emily a giraffe and Mackenzie, she just wanted to sit on a bench beside me.
As the carousel lurched into motion, Mackenzie thought she might like to get off and started to hop down off the bench. But it was too late, there was no stopping the ride. So I put my arm around her and pulled her close on the bench as we began to circle around and around. Mackenzie repeated quietly to me several times, while patting my leg with her tiny little hand, “It will be alright, Mommy. It will be done soon.”
There are plenty of times I feel like Emily and Isaac – I’m happy to be on the “horse” I’ve picked out and I’m enjoying the ride. And there are others when I feel like Mackenzie. It is all I can do to just look around and make sure someone’s arms are around me and repeat to myself, “It’s okay, this will be over soon.”
And the truth is, it is true.
For carousel kinds of days, Jesus made a beautiful promise in John 14 : 25-28:
25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.28 You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said,[e] ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.
There is One who promised: He will be there. always. He won’t ever let go. And, it won’t be long before we will be with Him forever. That’s a lot of really good news, packed into a few short verses.
I’m so thankful for a Heavenly Father who puts His arms around me and whispers these promises in my ear when I need them, especially on the days that I just don’t feel like being on the ride.
daily portion 