The big blue...

I love working with children, they are like walking, breathing, illustrated sermons in the making. I was reminded of a story the other day and God sort of opened up my eyes to an obvious truth.

It all started when I purchased a giant blue exercise ball on clearance at Target. I brought it to work and inflated it, and it was instantly the coolest thing in my class. Of course when 9 toddlers surrounded the ball it wasn't able to do much so we came up with a game...catch.

Of course a 3 ft tall toddler can't catch a 2 1/2 ft diameter ball, so when it was time to "catch" whoever was "catching" ended up catching air and flying backwards. Each kid would laugh and get up and run back for more (keep in mind I wasn't hurling the ball at high speeds, so I'm not trying to hurt anyone).

One of my students must've bit his lip, but in all the excitement I missed it. One by one I kept throwing the giant ball "to" the kids and each time this particular student would fall and start running back towards me.

At some point my co-teacher noticed tears falling and blood on his lip. She reached out for him and called his name, eager to comfort him and help him. Despite her arms open wide and despite her calling his name, bloodied and defeated, he kept coming back to the big blue ball.

How often do we do that in our walk?! How often do we get hurt and run right back to the very thing that hurt us when God is waiting, desiring to clean us up and get us back in the game? All my student had to do was turn around and walk away from the ball and he would have been safe, but for whatever reason the source of his discomfort is where he returned.

So obvious, yet so often missed...when wounded and defeated...run to the One who has His arms open wide, he only wants to keep you safe.

Jess