The Ski Trip

Psalm 17:8 Keep me as the apple of the eye

When I think of being the apple of Gods eye, I am reminded of when I was struggling in my addiction.  It was during one of my stays in a rehabilitation program.  My mother was trying to describe to me how much my Dad loved me and it was breaking his heart to see me live the way I was living.  She told me that I was the apple of his eye.  Words cannot describe what that meant to me and the saddest part of it was no amount of love that my Dad could show towards me was going to set me free from the sin that controlled my life.  No amount of love that I had for him was going to set me free either.  I needed the love and grace of God.  Being the apple of someone’s eye means that we are the center of their world and I believe we are the center of Gods world.  He wants the best for us and I believe God trust us!  How does it feel to know that we are trusted by God!  The bible tells us that God will trust us as we show ourselves faithful.

Luke 16:10:  He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much

One summer when I was probably about 12 years old my Dad took me and my brother to the lake.   We were all going skiing.  The day was going great.  We had a good time skiing and swimming and boat riding. Then to my surprise my Dad said that he wanted to ski.  Well I’m thinking how is this going to happen there is no one to drive the boat.   My brother and I are too young and the only time I had driven the boat was sitting in the seat with my Dad. Then the words came, Gary I want you to pull me skiing.  I was terrified and very excited all at the same time.  One thing my Dad told me was to make sure and not let go of the steering wheel because the boat pulls to the right.  Well here comes the moment when I am getting ready to pull my Dad out of the water.  I throttled the boat all the way, felt the resistance that you feel when you are jerking a skier out of the water and I was dying to see if Dad was up.  I turned around to see if Dad was up and as soon as I did I let go of the steering wheel.  The boat quickly turned to the right and was doing a 180 degree turn and we were heading back towards my Dad.  As I watched he let go of the rope and fell into the water. Thank God this incident ended well and no one was hurt.

The similarity I see here is just like I was told I am the apple of my Dads eye and he trusted me with the wheel of his boat --- we are the apple of Gods eye and He trust us and wants us to do great things!!  The main responsibility we have is trusting in Him that He is fulfilling His responsibility for our lives and we do that by not letting go of the steering wheel and looking back.

The bible tells us in Luke 9:62: But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God .”

Realizing that we are the apple of Gods eye and that He trusts us with great things will take us far.  Just grab the wheel and don't look back.