Stories about ice skating

          Last year, our young people went ice-skating. One young lady invited her grandfather to go with us. He came along and decided to go ice-skating as well. It had been decades since he was on ice-skates. He did well, although he fell a few times. But then he fell and dislocated his shoulder. What a grandfather won't do for his grand-daughter!

 

          A grandfather who loves his grandchildren will give until or even if it hurts. But what he will not fulfill is a request that would end in some hurt to the grand-daughter. It may hurt himself but it won't hurt her.

 

          God's love is like this grandfather's love. God gives until it hurts. It hurt Him in the sense that He gave up His only, unique Son for our eternal benefit. God gives us what we need, at the time we need it, in His eternal wisdom and understanding.

 

          But God will not give us something that will hurt us. He will test us, yes. He will challenge us, yes. But, to paraphrase Socrates: "The untested life is not worth living." The apostle Paul wrote: "we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:3-5).

 

          We can live by faith, knowing that God will only do what is in our best interest.

 

--Paul Holland