Deuteronomy 1:31 (NIV)
…and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.
by Natalia Merce Leuterio
A few days before my seventeen-year-old sister’s high school graduation, her tendonitis on the left knee acted up. As a young girl, she’s had this unusual condition for quite some time.
Although she had been walking without crutches for months, she now felt like she was in dire need of crutches, lest she could not march on her graduation day.
The thing is, her crutches were with her friend. That friend had been unable to return the crutches the past month, but promised to bring it on the graduation day.
Hours before the graduation, we continued to hope that her friend would return her crutches as promised. But since the friend was out of touch, I decided to make a plan B – call the principal, someone I knew personally, and ask if we could make special arrangements for my sister. The graduation stage had platforms and stairs, and it would be very painful for my sister to go up and down the steps and platforms like everyone else. The principal agreed to have us backstage so that my sister could walk from there instead of passing through the steps and platforms.
Minutes before the graduation, we were still hoping that my sister’s friend would come and give back her crutches. At this point, my sister had tried contacting this friend about twenty times, but to no avail. When the commencement rites started, we finally gave up the option of having her walk with her crutches.
So the new plan was that I was going to walk my sister to the part of the stage where the curtains were, and then she would have to walk alone and endure the few minutes of pain to get her diploma and pose for the photos. As her time drew nearer, the more she felt pain and she asked for more prayers.
We eventually walked up to the curtains. When she was three people away from being called, she clutched my hand tighter and gripped my waist. She said, “Ate, I cannot do it.”
“Baby, you can do it. It will only be thirty seconds of your life. One minute tops,” I replied.
“Ate, I cannot do it alone. I cannot do this without you,” she cried. And at this, I frantically waved to the principal who was on the other end of the stage. Thankfully, she understood my rather poor sign language and gave me the green light to walk with my sister on stage.
We walked, we smiled. The audience applauded, though they were not allowed to do so until the end of the rites. It was a shining moment.
This is how we should walk when God takes us to another level. See, going to another level often, if not always, means that God will allow us to experience trials to mold our character and to make us more dependent on Him. We can choose to cling to our crutches — our temporary, fleeting securities in life — or we can humbly ask the Father to take us by the hand and walk with us. He will not force the issue on us; submission and surrender are ours to choose. But when we humble ourselves, He is more than able to walk us gloriously through the painful circumstances.
