Cast your mind back to the last time you relaxed into the seat of a swing, hung on for dear life, and then kicked your legs in that deliberate rhythm until you felt yourself lift into the air. Forward, and back. Forward, and back. Can you feel the wind – that raw, cool sensation of the crisp outdoor – pressing against your face? Do you remember what it felt like to throw your head back and let the momentum carry you, suspended, in the air? To watch the clouds drift by from a position of rest and repetition? Forward, and back. Forward, and back.
It’s the cry of children at playgrounds, “push me, please? Just one more time…?!” And it’s the cry of our hearts, still. “Would someone just take over, please? Let me off the wheel, just for a moment. Let me feel carried, without the weight of the world on my shoulders. Push me, please, so that I can just let it all happen around me for awhile, and perhaps catch my breath enough to see a different perspective. Please?”
If you’ve ever felt this way, if these words resonate with you today, know that you’re not alone. And be reminded… in fact, be assured, that you are exactly where you are called to be, and your Creator is asking you to let Him carry you. We were never intended to carry it all, to know all, or to be all. We were created for relationship, for connection, to trust. Our lives are a journey of learning to trust the One who created not only the universe we live in, but each one of us.
I have a painting on my wall that was given to me by my sister. It’s such a beautiful image of what we were created for: of how we can choose to trust. A girl with wind-blown hair is mid-swing, letting the air swirl around her, holding tight to the ropes in her hands. Up above, just a little further than she can see, those same ropes are held by a vast, outstretched hand. She sits and she swings, trusting fully in the strength of the One who holds the ropes. She may not even realise what it is she’s doing, or have any concept of the enormity of such simple trust, but there’s something about her that captures me, every time I look.
Oh how I want to be her! Do you? I think that little girl has got something right. Those children begging for “just one more!” have got something right. We don’t have to hold it all together, but we can trust the One who does, and it’s ok to beg Him to carry us just one more time. Because He always will, even if we can’t see or feel it.
Just for a moment, imagine His hand. Suspended above you, holding firm to a swing. Will you take hold of the ropes, lower yourself into the seat, and allow yourself to fly?
Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do.
Today, I took my children to a playground, and yes, they begged for their turns getting pushed on the swings. And you know what? I joined them. As I swung myself forward, and back, then forward, and back (even when my children took great delight in reminding me that I’m not as light as I once was) my trust in the swing was complete. The wind brushed across my face, the sun whispered through the clouds, and I found myself breathing to the rhythm of the swing. Forward, and back. Forward, and back. Forward, and back.
It’s the little things. The chance to swing, for me, is a chance to breathe deep, to choose to trust again, and to relive a childhood love of mine. My prayer for you today, is that you would find your swing. If not in real life, then in your soul. Forward, and back. Breathing deep as you trust in the One who created you, and enables you to soar.
Kristy x
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