Nana, Will You Hold My Cup?

It was a perfect Saturday afternoon for a kid’s birthday party in the park. The sky was cloudy but the air was warm. Children were running in abandon to their happiness, zigzagging through a maze of ladders and swings and slides. The adults were either perched on the tailgate of pickup trucks or sitting on lawn chairs. Others in the group were laying out buns and chips on a table while the barbecue was fired up to grill the burgers.

The atmosphere was one of great fun; adults catching up on the happenings of the week while the kids ran and ran and ran, laughing in their happy moods. At one point, the birthday girl, cheeks red from running and hair damp around the hairline, ran up holding a big styrofoam cup between her hands.

“Nana, will you hold my cup?” she asks while thrusting the cup to the hands of her nana. Nana, of course, took the cup, smiling all the while watching the happy child run back to her playmates. It was obvious there was no doubt that nana would hold her cup. The question was asked with the absolute belief that nana would indeed meet her needs, and furthermore, nana wouldn’t mind one bit.

Remember when Jesus said to the adults He was once teaching, “unless you become as a child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God?” Children are so completely trusting of the ones who love them. If a child believes a certain person loves him or her, that child will not hesitate to go to that person with any need, from, “will you hold my cup,” to “I’m scared, will you stay with me,” to “I’ve scraped my knee, will you kiss it better?”

If only we adults could retain that childlike trust in relationship to our Heavenly Father. If only, when we are hurting, we would trustingly hold out our troubles to God, believing that He would hold them on our behalf. If only, when grief overcomes us, we would lay our hearts bare for our Father to mend with His comfort. If only, when we are afraid of what tomorrow may bring, we would run to our Father with a call of, “will you catch me; I’m falling!” knowing that His arms are open, ready to pull us close to Himself.

What would our lives be like….if only we trusted that He would hold our cup?