Going along with yesterday’s “May the Force Be with You” theme – “without me, you can do nothing,” we just received this lovely story from June’s nursing school roommate Charlotte Gerow Douglas. Char grew up in Argentina where her parents were missionaries, and her father kept a journal. Char opens with her dad’s reflection on a trip to the zoo with her and her older brother Bob and then applies the story to her life with her Heavenly Father.

He Holds My Right Hand

Daddy wrote on October 14, 1948, in Letters From Huacalera:

I took Bob and Charlotte to the Zoo. … Charlotte is so independent; Bob never let go of my hand for five minutes all morning, – and I was lucky if I could reach Charlotte‘s for five minutes. When she finished gazing at something, she would wander away unconcerned, and follow the first man she saw, without checking if it were daddy or not, and jabber on at the top of her lungs. We just let her go a couple of times to see what would happen. If we had not called her and broken her spell, she would be following some stranger explaining all about the last animal she saw!

For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” (Isaiah 41.13, ESV)

I haven’t changed a bit! I still find myself wrenching my hand out of God’s firm and loving hand and going off on my own, saying, “Me do it!” I’m so easily distracted by the things around me, and like that little 2 1/2-year-old girl, I follow anyone who looks like he knows where he’s going, and fail to check to see whether it is my God or not. Then He has to call my name and get my attention back to Himself, gather me in, and take my hand again.

I’m intrigued that He says he holds my right hand. Why so specific? Because He knows I am right-handed! If He held my left hand, I would still be wanting to grasp at things with my right, controlling things as I go along, crying “Me do it!” at the top of my voice. If He is holding my right hand, I can safely rest in His leading, and yield to His voice – “I will help you!”

Thanks for sharing, Char.