"Whose YOUR daddy?"

This is a picture of my neice from long ago...it reminded me of a scene I witnessed today on Granville Island. Tim and I took one of our boys from our group home to the Kids Market to play in the giant playplace (ya know the ones at McDonald's...the ones with the colored plastic balls you used to steal when you were in Junior High 'cuz you thought it was cool...?). Well, this one is bigger and costs a bit to get into.
Anyways, Tim and I sat at the bottom of the "tower of fun" watching our 8 year-old boy throw plastic balls at small children in the playplace...very entertaining. ;)
But something caught my eye.....there was a toddler climbing up the netting, jumping in the balls, sliding through small and narrow openings with everything she had. She was giggling and screaming with glee, her curly pigtails swishing around as she turned around every other second to see if her dad was still behind her.....did you catch that? HER DAD WAS IN THE PLAYPLACE! He was not a small and limber guy either....he wasn't some young guy or some athlete, but he was sliding and jumping and climbing through the place as though it didn't matter that every other kid couldn't get by his giant frame and that he could barely fit through the narrow child-size, no TODDLER-SIZE, openings! I was sooo impressed! The guy was totally into it and the little girl couldn't have been more pleased.

As I watched, I could tell with my "adult eyes" that he was growing weary...you know, the giant sighs, slower moving dives, trouble getting up....the signs. But the little girl just kept going, always checking to see if he was still behind her and when she slid through the small openings and it took her daddy a little longer, she would turn around and SCREAM! Seriously, SCREAM! She'd say, "DADDY!!! WHERE ARE YOU!!!" And he would say (very patiently, I might add), "I'm right here, honey, Daddy's coming". I thought, "What a trooper!". My kid didn't want me to come in with him. I was a little glad for that, though.
Then the little girl would get bumped by one of the other kids (probably MY kid) and start to cry saying she wanted to get out and her daddy would say, "It's okay, you can stay, you'll be fine, just get up again" and she'd be off for another round. And then there were times when she's totally take a spill and he would scoop her up and carry her to the next level of the tower. I was blessed.
It reminded me of how God treats us, our Heavenly Father, our Daddy. He's always beside us and when we turn around, He's got our back. And, unlike this dad, He never tires! When we get beaten up by the bullies, He encourages us to stay in the game, brush ourselves off and get up again. When we TOTALLY screw up or fall, He sacrifices Himself and His comfort to bring us to the next level. Cool.
Psalm 17:8 says, "Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings". King David (who wrote the Psalms) was like this little girl. She knew that no one loved her like her daddy and no one could protect her like he could. She knew just where to turn and even when she didn't feel like she needed him, she constantly looked behind her to catch his eye and he was always there....showing her that she was the "apple of his eye". I love that.
When the little girl stumbled, she wanted her daddy there and must have learned a thing or two from King David! He writes in Psalm 55:22 says "Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." And just like our Lord, her daddy picked her up and put her right back in the game. I am and you are the "apple of His eye"! Our Daddy's coming!!!
Thanks for reading! I love your comments....