[He] sets me on my high places… Your right hand has held me up.
Psalm 18:33, 35 NKJV
Our three visiting grandchildren, who live in a suburban California city, couldn’t get enough of, well, nature here in the South – swimming in Bear Creek Lake, fishing, and just being out under the tall pine trees. One afternoon as we headed back to the car after a swim in the lake, four-year-old Kent turned to his dad (my son, Andrew), pointed to pine branches well above his head, and said, “Daddy, I want to touch some high places. Could you lift me up?”
Putting down an armload of beach towels, my tall son grasped little Kent just above his knees. “Hold your body straight and reach high,” he instructed. Kent raised his short arms, stiffened his body, and looked up with expectation as his dad slowly lifted him higher and higher. Within seconds, at the end of his father’s arms yet safe in the grasp of strong hands, the excited child strained for the closest pine branch above his head.
“Daddy, I’m touching the high places! I see more blue sky!” he cried with excitement. At that point, my memory “Camera” recorded my grandson grasping a pine branch with both hands as his father’s extended, steady arms held him high enough to achieve that little heart’s desire.
Whenever I revisit this snapshot in my mind’s photo album, I think of high places that I’ve been able to grasp, too, because my Father lifted me up, holding me securely. In high places among divine branches, I have surrendered the outcomes of a cancer diagnosis and family losses to focus on hope beyond. In high places, heavenly promises from God’sd Word replace fear, grief, and bitterness with fresh comfort, trust, and peace. In high places, we may even grasp dreams – despite thinking all has been lost – that we didn’t know we had. With astonishment, I, too, have cried out, “Daddy – Father – I’m touching it! And I see bluer skies now!”
Words fail to describe what it’s like to pray, Father, lift me up, then experience His strength replacing weakness, His fullness replenishing emptiness. All I can do is humble my grateful heart and pray His own truths back to Him: I will love you, O Lord, my strength. You set me on high places, Your right hand sustained me, and Your gentleness encouraged me. You are the One who lifts me up (Psalm 18:1,33,35,48, author’s paraphrase). Today, let Him lift you up.
Carolyn Rathbun Sutton edited Women’s Ministries devotional books from her home in Alabama, US.
Color my World with Love, Copyright © 2020 by General Conference Women’s Ministries Department