DEVOTION//Safe in our Father's hands

The risen Jesus told Mary, "Go... to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your father, to my God and your God.’”

Easter guarantees that the infinite God of the universe has created an imitate relationship with us. Because of the resurrection, he looks at us in the same way as he looks at his Son. Christian author, pastor, and teacher Max Smith develops that picture of Jesus' Father now being our Father.

My Father is with me

Harry J. Taylor, a famous American journalist and economist, tells how as a boy, his father took him down into a mine.

The descent was made in a barrel which twisted alarmingly.  The bewildered boy was kept from fear by the grip of his father’s hand.  Then, his father led him into the darkness of the mine.  Eventually, they met a man carrying a light upon his hardhat.  He told them that there was gas about.  The situation was dangerous.  

Then, in the tense atmosphere, someone asked the boy if he was afraid.  He replied, “I’d be scared except my father is with me.”

Then, the journalist remembers his father smiled and said, “Then, you will never be scared, son, because a greater Father than I, will always be with you.”

We fight our fears with faith in Jesus, who said, “Do not be afraid, I am the First and the Last. I am the living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”    Revelation 1:17-18

Our fears are overcome by our trust in Jesus.

He ain't my father

Dwight L. Moody tells of seeing boys jumping from a porch into the arms of a man. They were enjoying themselves.  One boy stood off to the side watching, refusing to jump.  Moody asked the boy why he didn’t join the others and jump into the man’s arms?  The boy replied, “He ain’t my father.”

Trust your Heavenly Father to guide you safely to himself.