Balance and stability
Canes…come in all shapes and looks. I recently went through hip surgery and for a week or so I used one. Really helped. Today as I was leaving Corner Bakery a lady was helping her elderly mother with a cane to climb over a median curb without much success. I assisted and all went well. The mother was so very appreciative, and I was blessed to help. In that case, more than a cane was needed. They provide balance and stability but mostly on level surfaces.
I teach our Sunday School class and last Sunday, Leslie, one of our members presented me and another member with the hand-carved cane shown here. While on vacation in Colorado he carved these for us from tender Aspen limbs. Even has our initials on each. Very special!! Might use it to maintain order in the class. Rowdy bunch of seniors.
Throw down your staff
As I was walking with it to church that morning I remembered the scene with Moses, Aaron, Pharaoh and his court of magicians. Moses walked with his ‘staff’ and was there with it. God had him throw it down and pick it back up. Sounds like no big deal when you put it that way. But when it hit the floor, it suddenly turned into a serpent. You gotta have some kinda faith to do that! He did, but not before running away from it. Wouldn’t you? Moses had just told God that there needed to be a sign from Yahweh to convince the Israelites that he was speaking for God, and not just from him. Well, Moses got his wish.
What actually happened is the staff/cane that Moses was using was typical for that era. Used for common purposes. Walking, climbing, directing sheep are some of them. But God had other plans for it. Since Yahweh was going to do mighty works in and through Moses for the next forty years for the nation of Israel, he needed to make sure that he got the glory and not Moses. God told him to throw it down. He cast it down a common staff, he picked it up the Rod of God. And it was the power for Moses to use from then on. One dramatic scene is Moses holding up his staff while the people traversed the Red Sea. I know Moses wishes that he had not struck the rock with the ‘Rod’ in anger toward the end of his life. After that, God put into place the transfer of management from Moses to Joshua who would carry the people the rest of the way into the Promised Land.
What should you cast down?
Dads, I would ask the question—what are you holding on to that you need to release and cast down so it/you may be used by God in your role as husband and father? Is it your authority, pleasures, position, assets, things, addictions, what? Whatever you are clutching will in the end control you, ultimately defeating you. Would you jump into a body of water for a nice swim holding two fifty-pound weights? Certainly not! Do you get the picture? They are of no value to you, in fact, they are a liability. Working with them in the gym is where they become valuable. It’s not the weights that are the problem, it’s holding onto them.
God asked Moses to take a step of faith. What Moses was holding on to was useful to God but only after he released it and picked it back up to serve and glorify God. Read Exodus again. See what great and mighty things God did through him after he released what he was clutching. The staff/cane did not belong to Moses; he was just using it. God wants to use what he has provided you for great and mighty things also. But they are only useful when we commit them back to him by faith. And in Hebrews we see: “And without faith it is impossible to please Him” (vs. 11.6a NKJV). What freedom! What joy! And what a powerful generational witness to your family and extended family, not counting the world.
Leslie, thank you for my beautiful cane, carved with love. I will display it to remind me often of the power that comes from God when we release ourselves and our stuff to him for his use and his glory.
