The Shadow of Your Wings

Do you remember playing on the teeter totter (seesaw) as a child? Your tummy dropping on the up, hair flying on the down. It was exhilarating. Until, that is, someone decided it was more fun to jump off while you were on the upside and let you fall, hard, to the ground; or your teetermate was a bigger than you and laughed (wickedly) as she leaned back and kept you dangling in the air. My squeals were most assuredly not of delight at those moments! The whole point of the teeter totter, I thought, was to share your up and down time, to learn to work together, to find a balance so that both could enjoy the ride. Do you girls remember watching the boys seesaw? How they would try to throw one another off by shooting up too fast, intentionally thudding the other into the ground. Girls can be mean, but boys play rough. Maybe it’s their nature.

I’ve been praying for two “boys” who have been getting a little rough with one another. They’re scaring all the other kids on the playground. I’ve been watching them try to buck each other off the seats, and as long as they aren’t hurting each other or the other kids I guess I should just stay out of it. But in prayer a few days ago I began to “see” their back and forth in light of the teeter totter and I began to pray for the Lord to intervene. I “saw” Jesus stride across the playground and calmly place first one foot, then the other in the center of the teeter totter. Standing there, atop the midpoint, He easily gained control of the plank until He held it in perfect balance, and there, from His position at the center He looked at each boy. There was no anger in His glance, no judgment, just a kind but firm “Now, boys,” sort of look. What struck me most was realizing that when He stood at the center the boys, in order to see each other, had to look through Him.

There will always be times when we don’t play well together. When our ideas of “fun,” or how we think the game should be played differ. But this is not a game. The “boys” are both mature men of God and the plank upon which they “play” is the cross. On the one side, sola gratia holds fast, on the other, sola scriptura; but at the very center beats the heart of Christ, without which there can be no balance. Both “hands” nailed as a part of the one Body. Solus Christus.

May we never forget we are of that One.

Soli Deo Gloria ~ to the glory of God alone!