Leap of Faith

Our Italian Greyhounds don’t take to the water naturally. Sure, if you throw them into it, their instincts will take over. They will swim, but they don’t like it.  It’s almost impossible to get them to jump in voluntarily, yet today we tried.

The dogs like to stand on the tanning platform in our pool. It only has a few inches of water so they don’t mind it.  For them, it’s like wading in the creek.  They refuse to leave this platform, though, no matter how much they would like to join us in the pool. 

Gary and I were playing in the middle of the pool today, and Joss wanted to join us. We tried to coax him to step off the platform and swim to us. He wanted it so badly, but he was frightened to take the first step. He would stretch one paw into the deep water, and then pull it back. We could have pushed him a bit to get him started, but it was important for him to take that first step. He needs to know that he can do it on his own. Of course, we would never let anything bad happen to him. The problem is he didn’t know that.

As we stood watching him decide whether to take the leap of faith, I was struck with a thought. Is this how we are with God sometimes?

He stands a few steps in front of us with outstretched arms. He wants us to trust Him, yet we are afraid. We don’t always realize that He’s in control. If we start to sink, He’ll catch us.  There’s no need to be afraid. He’s just waiting for us to take that first step, the leap of faith.  He’ll take care of the rest.