My son lay in the parking lot of the doctor's office unable to walk. I scooped him up, carried him to the second floor, and laid him on the bed in a little room. The doctor informed me that he may lose his ability to walk altogether for an indeterminate amount of time. That was it. That was the moment God loosened a large portion of my grip I had on my child. My plans for him, my dreams of what he might do one day were gone. That's when I broke and asked God for His will to be done by loosening my hold on what was not mine to hold.
Clasping tightly, increasing our grip on things as if we have control is false security. We cannot control life and death, health or wealth, or the plans of God. Any hope of subduing sickness, holding off death, controlling the way of a child when he is older is futile. To hold on to plans we have for our children, our parents, our wallets, our health or the health of loved ones, or even our spiritual growth is exhausting.
After the death of her sister in a WWII concentration camp Corrie ten Boom wrote:
"Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open."
What might God be prying from your grip? What is it that you are holding on to, trying to control as if your plan supersedes that of Christ? There is peace in the loosening of our grip, in the opening of the palm. It is by faith that we let go and know that God works in awesome majesty for our good. He is able to do more than our imagination can think. Nothing on earth or beyond is His equal. He is a constant refuge and a quencher of fear. His plans cannot be thwarted, and only He knows His plans for your future. So let go and trust the One who can hold the world in His in hand to hold all that is precious to you.
"The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love."
-Psalm 147:11
