When You're Left Swinging at the Top of a Ferris Wheel

 On September 11th this month, after the ceremony involving the giving of bullet-proof vests to first responders in the parking lot of Sheels Sporting Goods Store, people were invited to look around inside. Our family enjoyed roaming around this beautiful store a bit and some decided to ride the ferris wheel which usually costs $1 a ride but which, when we asked to purchase tokens, was said to be "on us today."

So Jonathan rode with Danny, and Rose rode with Hannah, and away they went! Meanwhile I climbed the many steps up to a spot where I could take a picture of them! And Jonathan took a picture of me!

I got to watch Rose, who has gone hunting for elk and bear but who has never ridden a ferris wheel before, teeter at the top when the operator stopped the wheel to load more people way down at the bottom! I watched Rose reach to grab something to make the silly seat stop swaying with her in it six stories high!

I didn't ride at all. I do not like heights. They are scary. Except in an airplane. Thankfully I usually manage to stay calm in airplanes even though we are miles high. But ferris wheels only six stories high? That is a different story! (No pun intended!)

No matter how one feels about heights, few people like to be left hanging, swinging precariously in thin air! And neither do we like to be left hanging in the middle of uncertainty and fear anywhere else, either. Yet there are those times and places when, like Rose, even though we know God's arms are underneath us and all is well, we get the sense of an unsure footing, of being left swinging in the breeze six stories or more high, and we reach for something to steady us.

Or, more often, we get the sense of hitting bottom, somewhere down near the middle of the ocean, where there are all sorts of strange sea creatures and slimy seaweed that perfectly matches the stuff that must have wrapped around our friend Jonah's head when he ended up in the middle of the whale's belly. 

Strange things like those inside these columns of aquarium in Sheels store that day.

But we can rest assured that neither "height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:39) For "if I ascend up into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me." (Psalm 139:8-9) So if you feel like you are left swinging six stories high today or that you have descended into the depths of Hades, remember that even there shall His hand lead you, and His right hand shall hold you, steadying  your seat on the crazy ferris wheel of life, and calming your heart when you have no hope left.