The Net Will Appear

It's funny how simple things can often remind us of our relationship with Christ.  Yesterday my daughter wrote in a comment, "The net will appear."  As I stated, she knows me well.  I came across these four words close to 20 years ago while on a retreat with the women in the prayer group I was in.  One of our tasks for the weekend was to make a collage.  OK, so the retreat was a bit "seventies" for the the early 90's, and we were far from high school age where this kind of thing takes place on retreats.  Yet, in the course of designing my poster I came across those four words and ever since have them taped on my computer screen where I can see them every day. But what does it mean?

As a child, one of the acts in the circus that always amazed me were the trapeze artists. In recent years, after discovering Cirque de Soleil, I find that these arial acrobatics say more about trust than they do about any tricks that the artist performs.  Yes, the artist must have skill, strength, poise, and stamina, but he or she must also trust that they will be caught. The catcher is the most important person in the act.  He is the steady one, the one who often goes unnoticed, but is always there reaching out and holding on.   In a way, that is how God is.  So often we go about our lives, doing this or that, making great strides or accomplishing wonderful things, not even aware that God is there as the one who creates the rhythm of our movements. He catches us and sends us off to do more and more in our "performance" of life.  He allows us to soar and to fly.

Yet, sometimes we fall.  Our timing might be off, or we are not paying attention to where our lives are going, or we just try to accomplish something beyond ourselves and our capabilities, and we miss the catcher.  More times than not, it is because we rely on ourselves and fall prey to the lie that we don't need God. But when we fall, and we will, Jesus is there.  He is the "Net" that appears to catch us when we need Him.  Just like the safety net stretched across the stage floor far below the trapeze artists, Jesus is always there to protect us and keep us from harm.  All that is required is trust.

Now I do not think that I will ever attempt the flying trapeze, I am too afraid of falling.  But as I go through life, do my fears also keep me from doing what is God's will for me, what is truly right and good?  This is where those four words come into play.  Am I going to stay firmly planted on the "platform," giving into my fears and hesitations, or am I going to trust and take that "leap of faith?"  Do I want to just stay where I am, or do I want to "fly."