I had the opportunity to visit a church on Kindergarten Bible Sunday. It’s a precious gift to bear witness to a church acknowledging the growth of their children and planting in them a love for reading the stories and teachings of God. I smiled as this little girl wrapped her arms whole heartedly around her new Bible which nearly outsized her torso entirely. As she trotted back to her family, you could see the weight of those stories actually changing her gait as she tried to balance.
In the Book of Joshua, God instructs the elders carrying the Ark of the Covenant the take the first brave steps across the Jordan, and to stand in the riverbank, holding back the water until all have crossed.
The promises of God are heavy. The water those promises hold back are heavy, too. Sometimes they feel heavier than others.
When children are small, it is easy to remember that the promises of God are too big for them to carry on their own. We remind our children not to fear the dark, teach them songs of God’s great love for them, walk through their first Big Grief imagining together to joyous relief of eternal life for those we love.
As we grow, especially in those first vital years of emerging adulthood, we often believe we are meant to carry these promises on our own now. That we are finally strong enough and smart enough and mature enough to bear the full weight of reality—that we have to.
The water that threatens us, though, is too heavy to be held back by good attitudes and reasonable choices and strong moral character. It can only be held back by those Big Promises of God, the ones we need help holding.
When you support the Denton Wesley Foundation, it’s not just paying the maintain a building with a cross and flame out front, it’s taking the first brave steps into the river, holding the very promises of God.
We grow big enough to carry our own Bible, but none of us are capable of holding the promises of God on our own. The campuses we serve are filled with people God dearly loves in need of a community that will hold the water back for them. We are grateful for the ways you hold the water back, because it gives us a safe and dry place to cross.
Marianne Brown-Trigg 