The Swing

There is a large walnut tree in our front yard.
When our youngest daughter was little, all she wanted was a tree swing!
This walnut tree was perfect.

My husband, the engineer by trade and the woodworker by design, made a swing for her.
He bought sturdy ropes.
The engineer in him went to work finding the right spot…on the right branch.
The hooks had to be placed just right.
If they were exactly side by side, the swing would go crooked.

I love driving into my driveway…seeing the welcoming swing on the walnut tree.
All these years later, it still there…beckoning.
Come find the child within!

It is the swing that young children from our church use when they come over to visit.
It is the swing my own children still swing on from time to time.
It is the swing that is the place to go if you want to talk on the phone…privately.
It is childhood remembered.

I used to recite the Robert Louis Stevenson poem to my children as I pushed them on the swing.
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it’s the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide.
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside-
Till I look out on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown-
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

There is something so freeing about putting your head back and allowing the arc of the swing to lift you high off the ground.
There is not a care in the world on a swing.
You can be lifted over your problems…soar over your sadness…fly over your fears!

A child wants to be pushed endlessly on a swing.
And why not?
The motion is soothing…Mom or Dad are behind you…you are safe…free!

David must have felt the same way.

My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me. I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest – I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and the storm.” (Psalm 55:4-8)

David was so weary, he wanted to fly away somewhere.
He would have loved a swing…fly above all his troubles…get a new perspective.

David laments in this Psalm, but like many of the Psalms, lament turns to praise!
David feels betrayed…he feels he can no longer trust anyone.
Then it turns.
David says “but”…and the shift happens.
Lament…crying out to God…getting it all out…PRAISE!

But I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice….cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall…but as for me, I will trust in You.
(Psalm 55:16,17,22,23)

Our lament turns to praise as well…when we lament to God.
The perfect righteous God…who listens, and cares, and knows.
The only One who understands even before we utter a word.

I have heard it said that we can pound on God’s chest…He can take it!
When we are through ranting and raving, complaining and griping, we look up.
It is His face we see.
His face that has been there all along.
His face that has been lovingly holding us as we have our tantrum.
His face…the only thing we want to see.

Record my lament; list my tears on Your scroll – are they not in Your record? Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me. In God whose word I praise, in the Lord whose word I praise – in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Psalm 56:8-11)

Find a swing.
Kick your legs…fly…soar…lament.
Put your head back…way back.
Look Who is pushing you on the swing.
He has been there all along!

Childhood remembered…with the perfect Heavenly Father.
…the pleasantest thing!