DAILY BYTE
A father had to take his four year old son, Zach, to the dentist. On the walk there, the boy became so frightened at the thought of the impending dentist’s visit that he began to cry. Zach sat down on the pavement, folded his arms, and refused to walk any further. His father tried absolutely everything to get him moving, from bribes to threats, but nothing worked.
So eventually, despairing of anything else, he bent down and began to whisper a song into his son’s ear. It was a little love song, made up on the spur of the moment, the words didn’t rhyme and his voice was off-key, but he could feel the song begin to quieten his son. The boy’s muscles relaxed enough to allow his dad to scoop him up in his arms.
As he walked he continued to sing silly little things into his son’s ears like, ‘I love you Zach. I like to play ball with you. It’s fun to see you smile.’ Slowly but surely, Zach began to calm right down until he stopped sobbing and rested his head on his father’s shoulder.
The boy lay in his dad’s arms quietly while he sang all the way to the dentist’s rooms and then all the way into the dentist’s office itself. He remained quiet and peaceful when his dad stopped the song long enough to place him into the dreaded dentist’s chair. Then Zach lifted up his head and said: ‘Sing it to me again, Dad. Sing it to me again.’
Because of this week’s focus, many of your fears may have come to the surface over the last week. We all fear something and we all deal with our fears differently but if fear is left unchecked, unguarded and unacknowledged then it can become very dangerous to us. Fear can dominate the way we think and shape our emotions and reactions. Fear can hold us prisoner and fear can drive love and goodness out of us.
This is why it is so important to remember that it is love that drives out our fears! And because God is love, then it stands to reason that God would be the greatest force for driving out fears that we know of.
Interestingly enough, the Bible records well over 200 times when God or a messenger from God, urges us not to fear. It’s like … that’s God’s love song! ‘Don’t … be … afraid!’
When we are stricken by fear, God scoops us up in his arms and sings that song into our ears.
The universe is not such a bad place when we know that the Creator of it all is our friend, and when we stop shrinking before Goliath’s taunts and instead start listening for God’s continued whispers of love. God’s song!
That’s what David heard as he stepped out into the valley to face a fearsome giant. It’s what Jesus heard when he feverishly and fearfully prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, before stepping out to face the cross. And it’s what you could hear too. If only you would just stop and listen out for it. Like David did in Bethlehem’s fields and meadows, why don’t you learn to listen out for this love song of God that is continually being whispered out into the wind – for this song sings of God’s nearness and friendship.
And may you do just that. As you lift your head from this time of worship, and as you stare across at the valley of the weekend and week ahead of you, and perhaps you see standing in the middle of that valley your worst fears strutting around giant-like, taunting and attempting to diminish you, may you hear it now for you.
God’s song of love.
PRAY AS YOU GO
O Lord may we hear this song of your love. May we hear it rising above the taunts of our fears. And may the song, which speaks of your nearness and friendship, make those truths (which we can’t see) far more real and present to us than our threats (which we can see). In Jesus we trust. Amen.
FOCUS READING
1 John 4. 17a, 8 MSG
God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us.
There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life - fear of death, fear of judgment - is one not yet fully formed in love.
