Catch Me
A devotional by Jo Huddleston
“And, surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
~Matthew 28:20 (NIV)
~Matthew 28:20 (NIV)
One sunny afternoon, I pushed my three-year-old granddaughter, Mallory, on her swing. Soon tired of swinging, she hopped off the swing and scampered up the ladder to the slide.
Mallory soon discovered she had a problem: the slide was too hot from the sunshine for her to rest her bare legs against the metal so that she could slide down. Compounding her dilemma, Mallory lacked the necessary coordination to retrace her climb back down the ladder.
I walked toward the slide, thinking she would ask me to lift her off. But, without warning, Mallory leapt through the air toward me. I wrapped my arms around her just as she latched onto me. Mallory had chosen me as an escape from her perch atop the slide.
“You catched me!” Mallory shouted. “Momma Jo, I love you,” she said.
Recalling Mallory’s joy, I remembered a time I made a leap of faith into God’s arms. Thirteen years earlier, I watched meningitis suck precious life from the still form of Paige, my college-aged daughter, now Mallory’s mother.
Lying curled in a fetal position in her hospital bed, my daughter moved only her eyes. She looked up at me and whispered, “Mother, this may be my time to die.” Holding her limp hand in mine, I leaned closer and said quietly, “Darling, it may be.” No panic or fear registered in her words or in her fevered eyes. She shared a labored smile with me and slowly closed her swollen eyes.
I didn’t curse God or offer Him any arguments or attempt to bargain with Him to spare Paige’s life. Just as Mallory had felt secure in my catching her, I trusted God for His comfort and everlasting strength to catch me.
By the next day, Paige’s health had made an unbelievable change for the better and two days later the doctors released her from their care. God had rescued my daughter, and I breathed, “God, I love You!”
In His Word, God promises to be with us always. If we accept His promises with the innocence and trust of a little child, we can know the security of having the “peace of God, which transcends all understanding.” ~Philippians 4:7 (NIV)
God is always ready to catch you in your time of trouble if you trust Him and obey His word. In your heart, take God’s promises as a lifeline, depend on His protection. God is the only unchanging part of life. Allow him to take care of you.
~*~
Author Bio:
Jo Huddleston is a multi-published author who writes novels inspired by her fascination with the 1950s and her love of her native American South.
Novels in her endearing Caney Creek series, her West Virginia Mountains series, as well as her stand-alone release, Tidewater Summer, are sweet Southern romance novels.
Her writing career includes more than 200 articles and short stories, which have appeared in over 50 well-known Christian and secular publications including Guideposts and Decision. She's an online contributor to Christian Devotions Ministries (www.ChristianDevotions.us).
Jo’s devotions appear in eight anthologies and she wrote devotions on assignment and freelance for the following daily devotionals: Devotions, Open Windows, Pathways to God, The Quiet Hour, The Secret Place, and The Upper Room.
She is a member of the Literary Hall of Fame at Lincoln Memorial University (TN), and holds a M.Ed. degree from Mississippi State University. Visit Jo online at this address, www.johuddleston.com.
Her writing career includes more than 200 articles and short stories, which have appeared in over 50 well-known Christian and secular publications including Guideposts and Decision. She's an online contributor to Christian Devotions Ministries (www.ChristianDevotions.us).
Jo’s devotions appear in eight anthologies and she wrote devotions on assignment and freelance for the following daily devotionals: Devotions, Open Windows, Pathways to God, The Quiet Hour, The Secret Place, and The Upper Room.
She is a member of the Literary Hall of Fame at Lincoln Memorial University (TN), and holds a M.Ed. degree from Mississippi State University. Visit Jo online at this address, www.johuddleston.com.
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