Recently my daughter had a little box car race at her school. If you’re unfamiliar with a box car race, it’s essentially a bunch of kids running around in a circle wearing a box decorated to look like a car. See picture of Winnie Fox below for reference. She insisted on a unicorn car and also insisted on the smallest box we had available at the time.
You can imagine the combination of cute and chaos that come with having twenty 3-to-4-year old’s, run around in circles wearing boxes.
The teacher would line up two kids at a time and then the anticipation would set in when she started to count down, three… two… one… GO! At which point, both children would take off around the circle, most of the time. Some children would just stand there and wait for their parent to grab their hand and lead them around the circle. Some would take off with enthusiasm and confidence in their abilities. Some would start strong then quickly grow weary and slow down to a walk. All, however, would look to their parents at some point along the race looking for support and reassurance.
One little girl, while on her second lap around the circle of friends, tripped over her ribbons attached to her box car and tumbled over herself. Instant tears. She was hurt and embarrassed, She frantically searched the crowd for her momma. Her mom ran out to her and kneeled down beside her to wipe away her tears. She then grabbed her hand and lead her around the circle to finish her race. They finished together, hand in hand.
It was a beautiful reminder to me that Jesus runs our race with us. We all run the race differently. Some of us, when God says “go”, just stand there and wait for Him to give more guidance. We wait for Him to grab our hand and pull us along. Some of us take off with enthusiasm and confidence in our own abilities. Some of us start strong, then quickly grow weary and slow our walk. All of us however, hopefully, look to God along the way for support and reassurance.
Some of us trip up and tumble over ourselves, causing pain and embarrassment. Fortunately, our Father runs to us and wipes our tears, holds our hand, and leads us to the finish line. Hand in hand.
Jesus meets you where you are friend. He wants to hold your hand and help you run your race.
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." Hebrews 12:1-2
"Jesus meets you where you are, friend" ... so comforting to know bc most of the time - it's difficult to know your exact location in life! Reading that He will come to me (meet me where I am) not only gives me the peace my heart often yearns for but it helps motivate me to get my running shoes back out and start running my race! Thank you for this post! ♡