2011 - 05 Trust

                                                    Trust?

What a glorious April we have just experienced! One beautiful sunny day saw me strolling through Gower woodland towards the lovely Three Cliffs Bay. I was accompanied by my wife, daughter and grandsons, Ben and Daniel.

 Suddenly twelve year old Ben whooped with delight! A rope was hanging invitingly from a tree branch that reached out high over a stream that flowed twenty feet below. Ben immediately dragged the rope up onto the woodland path, grabbed firm hold and launched out over the drop.

He swung high over the stream flowing far below and returned safe to the path. “Have a go, Papa!” (Papa being his name for me!”)

 Deja-vu! My mind immediately went back a generation to an identical scene! This time it was a beautiful sunny day in the New Forest. “Have a go dad!” urged my young son Robert. I fearlessly grabbed the rope and launched out! “Snap!” I distinctly recall lying on my back on a dry river bed holding a piece of rope. Dry river bed? Then the waters rushed back covering me completely – along with the thick red silt from the disturbed stream bed! It was literally like the Red Sea waters flooding back and drowning the Egyptians!

 Back to the present! I decided not to take up Ben’s offer, even if I did appear a craven coward in his sight! As the walk continued one memory led to another. In my mind’s eye I saw a friend called Kevin surveying with horror the wreckage of his neighbour’s front wall! He was also surveying the wreckage of the rear end of his car! A fast three-point turn!

No problem to an aspiring Formula 1 racing driver! Until he put his foot on the brake – and nothing happened!

 I thought of the people and things that we trust! People throw themselves out of aircraft, and trust that the parachute will open! Our G.P. prescribes tablets that we shovel down our throats without having a clue what is in them, trusting that they will make us better. We submit to anaesthetic and trust that the surgeon knows what he is doing! We trust ourselves to go to sleep each night, believing that we will wake up in the morning! The list is endless, but they all have one thing in common! All these people and things in which we place our trust sometimes fail!

 Nearly forty years ago I became a Christian. I put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and His written Word, the Bible. My earthly journey is much closer to its end than its beginning. (I shall be 70 in August) I can say with the Psalmist, “Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.” How can I make such an assertion? Because Jesus said “Whosoever believes (trusts) in Me shall never perish.” He has never failed me, and I know that He never will. If you put your trust in Him, He will not fail you either!