Letting Go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj4w2tJ6XYM

"Once they turn blue and pass out then they'll start to breathe again," I remembered reading that in my 'how to be a mommy' book.
There was Danny turning blue. I'd just taken a knife, held by the blade, from his 8 month old hands. He was so shocked at the lost of this shiny treasure that he held his breath until he passed out. I was ready to catch him. The tile floors in my Israeli flat were unforgiving.

Sure enough, just like the book had said, he started breathing again.

This scene came flooding into my mind tonight as I listened to Denis speak of a better way. Maybe this 16 year old kid should have written the book.
"If you want to get something from a child, say your car keys or something, you offer him a toy or an apple or something better."
Brilliant. Why hadn't I thought of that? It would have saved me from prying a knife blade out of the determined hands of my Danny.
But Denis went on, "That's what God does for us. He offers us something better, Himself, to hold on to and not only that but He holds on to us."
John, the youth director, tried to throw him off. "Well, sometimes, I hold on to God with one hand and try to hold on the something else with my other hand."

But Tabitha came to the rescue, "The hand holding on to Jesus will find Him so beautiful and fulfilling that the other will release its grasp, the other thing will just fade away."

Phil. 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Hold on, let go of those shiny blades and hold on, heart, to the One who never fails.