"Hold you, Daddy."

It is not too uncommon for Asher to wake from a nap a bit whiny and a little fussy. Typically, this clears with little or no fanfare. Most of the time, he wants to be held and comforted. This also happens whenever he gets frightened or concerned. Interestingly, he even does this in response to various forms of "discipline."

This is what happens: he comes running to me with his arms up and says, “Hold you, daddy.” I pick him up and love on him for a moment or eight. Except in rare cases, that is enough and he is right back to what he was doing before all the commotion.

How often, when we get frightened or concerned or even disciplined, do we run to God with our arms up and say, “Hold you, Daddy.”? Again, it is interesting to me that when something contrary happens to him, he wants to be held. When is it that we grow out of that? Seriously, when something contrary happens to us, very often the response is bitterness or disdain for God. We tend to want space between the “offended”, me, and the “offender”, God. After all, he had the power to make all of this very different and chose not to.

Look at David when the prophet Nathan comes to him and says, “You are the man.” After the baby, born from sin, dies, what is the first thing he does? He gets up and gets cleaned up. Then he goes to the House of the Lord and worships and probably writes Psalm 51.*

He went to God with his arms extended, hands in the air and said, “Hold you, Daddy.” This is the same man that God calls a man after His own heart.

Maybe a better response for us would be to run to God with our arms up and say, “Hold you, Daddy.” Then see what happens…

Oh, I need to be more like my son.





*For the complete story read 2 Samuel 11 & 12
Photo by Inglin Photography (Mimi)