Walking With GodSampel

Carrying you home

I once planned a family hike to a beautiful waterfall in Yellowstone National Park, but our youngest daughter hit a wall before we got to the water. We were miles from our destination when she ran out of gas, so I crouched down and said, “If you don’t walk faster, a grizzly will get you.”

Just kidding. I crouched down and invited, “Hop on.” As I walked toward our destination with my beloved on my back, I could feel her joy increase. She was overwhelmed by a distance she didn’t think she could walk, so the ride was a delightful surprise. She was a different kid when I finally set her down 1,554 steps later (we counted 😊).

Jesus does something similar but so much better. He knows that heaven is equally beautiful and unreachable for our little human legs, which is why he carries us, not for 1,554 steps or a few miles but from start to finish. Peter wrote, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

There is such joy in those words! How do you get to God? By walking fast enough? By grinding out enough spiritual steps of obedience? No. Just Jesus. Jesus suffered to bring you to God. The cross carries you all the way to the Father’s presence. Your “walk with God” is not an overwhelming, keep-up-or-a-grizzly-hell-awaits-you walk. No, it’s a joyful journey with the God who will carry you home.

What a walk!

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