Our growing family was recently given a “new to us” play set for our backyard. It is a really nice one that came fully equipped with swings, a slide, a climbing rope, and a climbing wall. The only problem we have so far is that my kids are just not daring or adventurous. They are generally very careful and conservative with their play. However, like a good dad, I am constantly pushing them on a mission to play harder, try new things, and climb higher. Sometimes this goes well. Other times, not so much. Now before you get to judging my parenting too much, let me explain how this goes down. While pushing my kids to do things they are not comfortable with, I am always right there with them, encouraging them to trust me while assuring them that, no matter what, “Daddy’s got you.” While I push my little girl Lucy James to go higher on the climbing rope, I am right behind her saying over and over again, “Daddy’s got you, sweetheart. Daddy’s got you.” My hope is that she knows she can and should trust me. And I hope she will trust that even if she falls, she will fall safely into my arms.
No matter the mission I send them on, I am constantly seeking to reassure my kids, “Daddy’s got you.”
Every time I do this, I am reminded of the words of Christ in John 10. Jesus says in John 10:27-30, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Jesus speaks these powerful words to the Jewish leaders in front of some of his disciples. As soon as Jesus says these words, the Jews pick up stones to kill him because they think he is being blasphemous. So a little later when the resurrected Jesus tells his disciples they are sent into the world to make disciples just as he was sent into the world ( John 20:21-23), they can remember the words Jesus spoke from John 10. As disciples, they are able to hear and remember his voice. As disciples they can rest assured that they are fully known and fully loved. As disciples they can remember his comforting words as they seek to follow him wherever he may lead. As sent disciples, they often would be led into uncomfortable and dangerous places and situations as they lived out the mission of God. As disciples, they can follow wherever their Savior leads, remembering the entire time that no matter what, “Daddy’s got you.”
Like the first disciples, we are sent into the world as Christ was sent into the world.
We are to go and make more disciples. As we seek to be disciple-makers many things can be difficult. When we hear these words they should remind us that we can and should trust him. We can trust that we are completely secure in him. We can trust that we will always be able to hear his voice in the midst of the noisiness of this life. We can trust that we are fully known and fully loved. We can trust that wherever he leads, it is always worth following. We can and should trust that even if we fall, we will never fall out of his strong and loving hands. We can rest in the reality that no matter what, “Daddy’s got us.”
No matter where the mission takes us as his sent ones, we are way more secure in the hands of God the Father and God the Son than my kids will ever be in mine. We can be sure it will be trying, difficult, and dangerous. We can be sure that we will struggle along the way. We can be sure the enemy and others will attack us. More than all of this, however, we can be sure we are secure in him because he’s got us and no one can take us from his hand. The good shepherd laid down his life for us. As sent ones, we can trust we are always safe and secure in him.
