Today’s scriptures are about God’s promises and our faith and trust in those promises.  Trust can be a rare and precious commodity at times.  In 2 Samuel the Lord tells David that He will raise up an heir who will build the temple and whose kingdom shall endure forever.  Only he’s going to do this after David is dead and buried.  I’m not sure how I’d take such a promise, but in the Psalms David sings the praises of God’s promise and has complete confidence that God’s covenant will stand firm.  In Romans we are told that it isn’t by obeying all the rules that we receive God’s promise and gift, but by faith.  And in Matthew we hear that oft repeated phrase “do not be afraid.”  I’ve noticed that this usually prefaces something where we should be afraid.  Joseph is told in a dream not to follow his own plans, but to trust God and do as instructed.  Joseph awakes and does as the Lord commands.

How do we reach the point where we trust God’s promises?  My youngest son, Seth, is 16 months old and the apple of his daddy’s eye.  Being 16 months old means that he has had some experience with stairs and sometimes that experience has been a frightening and painful tumble.  Despite this experience, if I am standing on the landing, he will come to the top of the stairs and with a toddling run and a delightful cackle, he launches himself into my arms.  I marvel at such complete and utter trust.  One thing I’ve noticed in our little acrobatic episodes is that Seth’s eyes never leave my face.  He doesn’t look behind him and he never looks down.

Several weeks ago a tragedy occurred in our community.  A criminal fleeing from the police ran a stop light and ran into two 16-year-old boys returning from a play rehearsal.  One of the young men was killed instantly and the other lies in a coma as I write this.  The boy in the coma is a friend of my oldest son and his parents are friends of mine.  I have prayed for this boy with a fervor like few other things in my life.  I have often found that in the midst of my prayer for this boy’s healing, I find myself in a rant at God at the injustice of this incident.  This tragedy hits so close to home with me that I see it as way beyond just not fair.  How can this be allowed to happen?  Why is the criminal alive and an innocent bystander dead?  I look to my own life experience and the world’s definition of justice and I get angry.  Somewhere in my prayer I realize my eyes are not on God’s face.  God demonstrated his love for us through Christ.  God promises to take care of us and I have to have faith in that promise and trust Him.  Sometimes this is not easy.  Heavenly Father, help me to keep my eyes on you.