Around the Shabbat table, scripture is read, questions are asked, and there is space for God to move. This past Shabbat dinner our 7 year old spoke up after one of the questions and said, “I have something to share about God but not about the question you asked.”
Of course we gave her the table and listened.
She shared how earlier that day she felt very scared while at her horseback lesson. She went on a longer trail ride for the first time and began to feel like she might get lost. She shared how she prayed to God and He helped her. He assured her that she would not get lost.
If I’m being honest my internal knee jerk reaction was to say “Even if you had gotten lost….etc. etc.” and I thought I would say it. It’s what my brain was trying to communicate to my mouth.
Instead, what came out when I did begin to speak was simply, “God is faithful.”
Thats it. Thats all that came out.
Later that night I was asking God if I had made a mistake. What if some tragedy happens because it’s not always rainbows and unicorns. What if one day she does get lost? Worldly theology took hold of heart and made me question the very spirit of God that breathed out the statement earlier at the table. God brought me to my knees in repentance.
First and foremost she is His. His spirit filled her a few months ago and she never looked back. He spoke to her when she faithfully turned to Him instead of something else. Instead of trusting that God did in fact keep my daughter safe, I immediately went to needing to explain all the implications behind that statement. Ugh. Can you see why repentance was necessary on my end? I needed to trust that it was in fact our Father that kept her safe, rejoice that she turned to Him when she felt fear overtake her. That was the weightier matter friends. I needed to know that all she needed to hear in that moment was the truth that God is faithful. So I repented.
The reality is, one day, there will be a moment where hurt or let down happens. In those moments, the truth she needs to fall on is the fact that God is faithful. It will be these small moments over time, where He has shown her in the small ways, the very word of God, and the prayers of those around her that keep that truth front and center.
We train our kids up, we show them what success looks like, feels like, early on. We tell them to remember those wins as we walk them through an earthly set back.
Our Father is just that, our Father. He trains us up with His spirit, he shows us what holy is. He gave us His word and our own answered prayers to remember when the earthly struggles get to be too heavy. Countless examples of His faithfulness.
It’s as if he knew that one day, a part of us would let the world tell us that He isn’t. That we would question a very real truth that is everywhere in His word. So, He breathed out His word, with His faithfulness shining throughout. So He answers prayers for us to remember Him. He imprinted the truth that He is in fact faithful on the heart of every one of His sons and daughters with His spirit.
One day, when our daughter is feeling let down by the world, the only truth she will need to hear is, God is faithful. One day she’ll remember the trail ride where she learned first hand that He is faithful. One day she’ll remember the prayers of the prophets and see the answered prayers through Jesus. One day the world will try to tell her that He isn’t faithful and one day she will tell the world to kindly be quiet.
Because lost or not, God is faithful.
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