God’s piggy-back ride

I hope that at some point in your life, you’ve experienced a piggy-back ride on the shoulders of someone strong, someone who loves you, someone with whom you can place all your confidence that the ride will be safe and secure.

If you have, it might be time to recall that feeling of trusting the one harboring you, carrying you along life’s bumpy road, hoisting you up to give you another vantage point to put the world into better perspective, to give you a break from your own, tired walk on little legs that have a hard time keeping up.

Everyone deserves such a hoist on occasion, and I was certainly needing one earlier this week. I’d received a text that had left me stung and sad. And, I would say, too, a bit disheartened.

As soon as I could, I flew to the Adoration chapel to spend time at the feet of our Lord. Wiping away warm tears, I opened my “Magnificat” devotional to see what God might have to say to me. I realized that it was the June issue, even though the calendar had just turned over to July 1. But I persisted, knowing God would reveal something to me even if it happened to be on the “wrong” day.

I turned to the final meditation and there it was; a reflection by Saint Francis de Sales, a man who died in 1622, a “great figure of the seventeenth-century rebirth of Catholic mystical life,” as the description following his reflection states.

And from the heart of this holy man who lived so many years before either you or I entered the picture, I heard God’s voice in the meditation on “How to Face the Storms in Life.”

“Do not look forward in fear to the changes in life;

rather, look to them with full hope that as they arise,

God, whose very own you are,

will lead you safely through all things;

and when you cannot stand it,

God will carry you in his arms.

Do not fear what may happen tomorrow;

the same understanding Father who cares for

you today will take care of you then and every day.

He will either shield you from suffering

or will give you unfailing strength to bear it.

Be at peace,

and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.”

I read the last part a second time: “He will either shield you from suffering or will give you unfailing strength to bear it.”

Did you get that? Did you hear the promise contained?

God is going to give you a piggy-back ride. He’s not going to leave you abandoned, or hurting, or wanting.

Reading these words, I knew that I had found what I had come looking for. I knew that solace was being offered that moment; a reminder of how precious I am — you are — in the sight of God, and that I can indeed find a resting place in Him.

Stay focused. Stay hopeful. The piggy-back ride is part of God’s plan for you, too, and the ride, the view, it’s all going to be worth it.

Q4U: When have you felt hoisted up by our loving Father? Or others through whom He has worked?

Before you go, can you please pray with me for a friend who will be undergoing an intense treatment this coming week, and a family member who will be undergoing surgery? Thank you.