The other evening, my son and I were in our basement, and when he went upstairs ahead of me, he turned the lights off. It was totally dark, and I asked him to turn the lights back on so I could find my way to the stairs. He asked me if I was afraid of the dark, and I said no, I used to be, as a child, but not anymore. He told me that he's not afraid of the dark anymore either. I asked him why not, and did anything happen to make him not afraid of the dark anymore? He said no, just one night he realized that his fear was gone. He said Jesus took that fear from him. Did you ask Jesus to take the fear away I wondered? No, he said, Jesus just knew I did not need to be afraid of the dark, and he just takes care of me like that even when I don't exactly ask him.
What a beautiful place to be in your friendship with Jesus, I thought. To just be living in awareness of God's presence, and even in expectancy that He will give you what you need. To humbly receive gifts and blessings from Him. There's something so pure and simple about my son's understanding of who God is - and who he is to God - that makes me want to take that posture as well.
What if we lived in such an awareness of the presence of God and accepted his good gifts with thanks to the One who knows what we need?
-Candice
