Hold On

I took my family to the Yankees victory parade on Friday. We took the Staten Island Ferry into Manhatten. By the time we got there the parade route had already been blocked off. We couldn't get over to see much of anything. We did manage to make our way over to where the parade started. We could see the ticker-tape up ahead. And we saw the marching bands and even the floats- just not the Yankees.

In order to get to where we could see anything we had to make our way through a crowd. This crowd was composed of a couple million of my closest friends- and I mean closest in proximity. As we walked through the crowd there were people pressing up against us from every direction. There was really no such thing as "personal space" in that moment. One kid tried pushing me out of the way- I looked at him and let him know that while I was polite, I was still a whole lot bigger and stronger than he was.

I felt bad for my 5 and 6 year old daughters who were holding onto my hands. They couldn't see anything except for the backside of the person in front of them. If you've read many of my posts, you probably have figured out that most of the stories about flatulence that I tell involve them. But this time I was afraid that they would be on the receiving end- right at nose level.

The experience of children holding on tight to dad while in a crowd is a good picture of what Christians are told to do in Hebrews 10:23, which says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." We are instructed to hold on tightly to the truth that Jesus is the way to God. We must believe this fact and then live our lives based on the truth of Jesus being our way to God. And just as an earthly parent makes sure that the kids hold on tight, we can be sure that God will help us cling to Him appropriately.