I remember an old story that was a great picture of Christ. It was spring of 2006 and I took my little in Big Brothers Big Sisters to a local fish hatchery / fishing location. He was not very interested in fishing that day but rather, he wanted to hike up the hill. This boy was very scared of most things, but he was so focused on climbing up that hill. He ran so fast up the hill that I had a very hard time keeping up with him. Finally he got way up the hill and then stopped. Once he turned around, he saw how high up the hill he was and he became instantly paralyzed by fear. he had no idea how he got into the situation that he was in. He even started to tear up about it.
I called him by name and put my arm around his back. I walked him slowly, step by step, back down. He was very scared, but he got down nicely thanks to my help. Once he reached the bottom and we found the path in the woods, he took off running again. he ran ahead of me, forgetting momentarily that I was right behind him. That is a great picture of us. We get moving up a hill and do not realize how fast up we go. We turn and see the consequences of our actions, and become paralyzed by fear. It is Christ, however, who reaches down and guides us step by step back to the right path. Usually, once we are comfortably on the path, we forget about Him and run ahead.
We see this picture in the Old Testament when Joshua dies and the Israelites are in the promised land. It got very comfortable and the people would forget to follow the Lord their God. They would turn away and God would bring trials on them in the form of the Cannanites that were still in the land. At time, God would raise a Judge that would draw the people back to Him, and then they would overcome. You can read seven such cycles in the book of Judges. Christ desires us to surrender all things to Him. Although we do not always do that, he forgives us anyway and we go on with Him. Remember Romans 8:1, There is now therefore no condemnation in Christ. If we confess our sins, He forgives our sins (1 John 1:9). Let us keep Christ right behind us!
