The California sun warmed us up while the Pacific breeze cooled us down, creating the perfect meandering weather. My dad led the way, navigating the hilly streets of San Francisco toward a surprise activity he had planned for the two of us. We strolled for over an hour, stopping to pick up a coffee to accompany us on our sightseeing. “Bike the Golden Gate Bridge,” I read out loud from a sign above us. “Can you imagine? That sounds crazy.”
“Really?” My dad smirked, “Because that’s what we’re doing.”
Since I was a kid, my dad has always planned surprise activities for us two. Sometimes these were small things like an impromptu picnic after school, and other times they were a bit more grand, like biking across one of the tallest bridges in America.
As I freaked out, half from excitement and half from fear that I wouldn’t remember how to ride a bike, my dad reassured me that everything would be alright: “Trust me, you’ll have fun. Of all the surprises I’ve planned for you, has there ever been one you didn’t like?”
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve grown to understand the first Person of the Trinity, God the Father, through the unconditional fatherly love and friendship my dad has shown me. No matter the circumstance, he is the one who answers whenever I call, who knows exactly how to cheer me up when I’m sad, and who always wants what’s best for me, even when I can’t see it myself.
I reluctantly agreed to my dad’s crazy plan, but by the end of our several-hour-long bike ride, I couldn’t tell if I was more sore from cycling or from laughing the whole time. The experience was not something I would have ever planned for myself, yet, like always, my dad knew best, and that day ended up being the highlight of my summer.
God has many surprises planned for our lives — most of which may seem absolutely crazy yet He always knows best. If I can confidently trust my earthly father, how much more trustworthy is our perfect Heavenly Father? He is the Father who will always answer our calls, always know how to cheer us up, and always have the best planned for us, even when we’re oblivious to it all. When we trust in God, we allow these plans to come to fruition, and the journey is often much more enjoyable than expected; that’s the kind of good Father He is.
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This is part of the series called “The Human Being Fully Alive” found here.
And today we celebrate...