“It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last” (Lk. 23:44-46 ESV).
John Ortberg tells of being at a hotel swimming pool with his two daughters who were three and five years old. Before getting into the water, Ortberg gave his daughters a stern lecture about the danger of drowning. Then, while his five year old jumped into Ortberg’s waiting arms in the water, the three year old accidently slipped from the pool’s edge into the water. Within a second Ortberg grabbed the three year old and lifted her out of the water. The three year old starting bawling: “I drowned, Daddy. I drowned.” “No you didn’t, honey,” Ortberg replied. “You didn’t drown. You were only underwater for a second.” The brief submersion was terrifying to her, but Ortberg knew she was always within reach of her father’s arms.
Jesus knows this truth. Though submerged in a deep and dark pool of suffering, he knows that he remains within reach of his Father’s hands. Jesus understands that though the circumstances may suggest that the Father’s hands have slipped, those hands actually still hold. Jesus is able to entrust himself into those reliable and ready hands.
What about Highland’s future do you need to entrust to those same hands? Is there something about that future which in some way seems endangered? Picture it in your mind and then pray: “Into your hands, I commit ______________.”
