He holds my hand?

I had a discussion last night with some fellow ‘followers of the way’. The talk centered on when God fills you with His Spirit, our life becomes Him living through us. How exciting!Everyone in attendance understood the concept (I think), yet as so often happens, right on the tails of that came the avenue of thought that we should strive to conform to some set of ‘actions’ or that we should discipline ourselves to be found worthy of what He has done. The excitement, energy and life was sucked right out of the conversation.

I came home after that and heard a song saying Jesus ‘hold my hand’. The perspective was of the singer being; childlike, needy, scared and they desired that Jesus would hold their hand providing; security, protection, instruction. Now there have been times in my life where I ‘needed’ Him to do and be just that. There may be times in my future where I find myself in that position again and I don't think I would have a problem seeking that refuge in His power again, but the recurring theme of the night seemed wrong in my moment of reflection.

I remember the day I realized Jesus had let go of my hand. He had brought me along, taught me stuff, picked me up and brushed me off when I fell. He protected me in storms and fought off enemies when I had no wisdom or strength to do so myself. Yet there came a day when He let go of my hand and set me free. He has not left me, he has not abandoned me, He has not changed His love for me but He did change His desires for me.

I don’t think I understood that he let go of me. But I walked, sometimes wobbly, sometimes falling, hurting myself and others. I screwed up at times, and made wrong choices, (I still do) but He wasn’t ‘apart’ from me. He was with me. Eventually I ran, sometimes wildly. Rip roaring through the world crashing into and through life. Sometimes I raced ahead of Him and He raced where I went, right behind me. Other times He would fly off and I’d chase after Him, sometimes scared, sometimes amused, sometimes laughing wildly, and sometimes amazed.
Sometimes we go off side by side. Sometimes we hold hands, like men hold hands when they pray, or like lovers do, or like guys might do to form a chain to keep a crowd back. He still shows me stuff. I show Him stuff too, nothing He’s unaware of, just stuff I like, or wonder about, or consider. He does the same for me.

You see, I think God wants for us the same thing a parent wants for their child. As my wife and I have raised our children, we tried to give them some understanding of the world system. We tried to give them some wisdom, some tools and some strength from which to live their lives.

Do you think another ‘picture’ of Jesus in our lives could be of Him coming to us, changing us, teaching us, strengthening us, in the hope that He would eventually stand us up, and give us a pat on the butt and smile as we wander off to explore the wonderful world he made for us? All this in hope that we would share our discoveries and experiences with Him.
Do you think he likes to see us fly?