“The people surrounded him (JESUS) and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name.But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.30 The Father and I are one.” (The Gospel of John,  10:4-29, NLT)

Father's Hands

(Photo copyright 2009 Monica Mason Higgins; Used with Permission)

When I first saw this photo I immediately thought of John 10:29 “No one can snatch them from my Father’s Hand.”  In this simple photo you can get much of the impact of these words. More fool he who tries to harm this infant in the firm but loving grip of his father.  Held with a grasp probably remembered from handling a football but with the delicacy of indefinable love, sound asleep swaddled in safety and security, the baby rests snuggled and safe.

JESUS is being attacked by those who are facing internal struggles.  Part of them wants to believe that JESUS is the embodiment of all they’d hoped for in Messiah, the One who would rescue them, but He’s not acting like He’s “supposed” to act.  They don’t know what that missing thing is but they don’t want to trust Him wrongly because they are living in the fear of not doing the right thing rather  than in the freedom of the love of GOD Who already did all the right things for them.

JESUS explains that what He has said and what He has done is enough and all that is required of anyone to be His is to rest in those two things.  There will be times when action will be called for.  His own will listen to Him and follow Him.  (v27) Paul will call for us to put aside childish ways as we mature as Believers. (1 Corinthians 13:11) But in the sense of belonging to GOD and having eternal life, there is nothing to be done but to rest in JESUS and the security of what He has said and done for us.  We are His lambs, His infants, snuggled securely in His grip, which is loving yet eternally strong and invincible though every other power that ever has existed or ever will comes against them. Because all opponents are created by CHRIST through the Father so none are greater than the Creator.  The Father is no nasty, bloodthirsty being that “poor Jesus” must appease. They are One in the mystery of unfathomable love, power and joy of love in Trinity with the Holy Spirit and toward us.

JESUS Himself started out life as an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes.  He was made absolutely powerless by human hands so His infant hands wouldn’t scratch His face before tiny mittens were invented, so he would stay warm and dry, safe and secure even in a hay bed.  The Son of GOD allowed Himself to be wrapped in restricting flesh for our sakes.  Years later He would allow other human hands to bind His Hands and Feet again, this time on a wooden cross with spikes.  He was bound to free us from the need to think we need do anything other than acknowledge Him to find the love of those resurrected Hands around our hearts and our souls securely His forever.

The security of the wrappings, symbols of loving hands, have calmed and reassured generations of infants for thousands of years.  And GOD seeks to swaddle us today.  We kick and scream and flail about in life, mostly out of our insecurity..  “The economy is going to hell!  What will we do?”  “We’re going to be attacked, invaded by madmen!  What can we do?”,   “What if…”, “Where will…”, “Who will..”, “When will…”  Yet in it all, all that really matters is what JESUS has already said and done. Believe Him for whom He says He is and what He has done for us in the Name of the Father and the Power of the Holy Spirit.  Rest in the security of His grip that no one and nothing, not even our own efforts against it, can break.

As Believers in JESUS Christ as GOD in Flesh Who died and rose from death for us to free us from death forever, we are like that baby.  We are loved in spite of all the fussing and screaming we do, no matter how often we do it.  We are secure in spite of all the “messing” on ourselves we do.  There is nothing we must accomplish to be accepted other than existing as His accomplishment.  Sometimes all GOD expects of us is a smile in recognition of Who He is and for us to relax and enjoy His snuggles.