Jul 07
6
Skating for Beginners
Posted by Stephen6
Tags: Daniel, father-son, learning, Skating
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I took Daniel ice skating tonight for the first time this year. Funny how we never managed to go skating all winter, and now that it’s summer we finally get to go. Respite from the heat, I guess. And cheap rates seeing as nobody goes ice skating in the summer.
Daniel and I had been once before last year, a pretty short event on account of a small boy that kept falling over. But it was memorable, and he’d mention it every now and then.
Today was much better. There were hardly any people at the rink (because it’s summer, right?), Daniel was more than a year older, and we found a training frame for little kids. This last item was a great relief for Dad. I no longer had to skate around at a snail’s pace, bent over double holding Daniel’s hands. My back rejoiced!
This training frame was kind of like a walker for old people, except smaller and with no wheels. Really just a metal tubular frame shaped like a hockey net, but smaller, and with no net. For the first while Daniel just draped himself over the centre bar and scrabbled on the ice with his skates. About every twenty seconds his skates would fly out from under him and he’d be on his back looking up at me. Then there’d be a mad scrabble as he tried to get upright again amidst peals of laughter and calls of “Daddy, help me!” But he made progress, and soon realized there were lines painted under the ice. And it was off to the races!
From then on we only skated on the lines, more or less. This is normally a suicidal thing to do, because the lines cut across the flow of skaters around the arena at right angles to everybody else. Usually skating on the lines would be a sure way to get clobbered. But since there were so few people it was OK. So now Daniel was Skater McQueen, after his favourite movie character. We were racing to the end of the line. He forgot about trying to concentrate on his skates. He took his mind off all the instructions Dad was yelling at him. He lifted his gaze off his feet and focused on the end of the line at the other side of the rink. And he just skated. And picked up speed. And got excited. And felt satisfaction at reaching the goal. Then we’d move on to the next line and repeat. We skated for almost an hour and a half. Daniel finally conceded that maybe it was time to go home now (good thing, since the rink was almost closing), and I marveled that he’d maintained a consistent, concerted effort for so long.
It reminded me of this verse:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
Hebrews 12:1-2 (NET)
When Daniel lifted his eyes off his immediate struggles to focus on the goal, he did much better. Likewise. we’d do so much better if only we looked up from our daily trials and looked to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is right here alongside us, prompting us to do the right thing. But how often do we retort, “This Living By The Spirit is difficult! I’m barely keeping my head above water as it is!” And so we struggle on, trying to keep at least a semblance of Christianity despite our failings.
All it’d take would be to lift our eyes off ourselves and on to Jesus. Fix our gaze on Him. We’d find ourselves suddenly picking up speed, getting closer to the Master, stumbling less, doing Christianity right, finally living the life God intended for us. And we’d find ourselves enjoying it, experiencing the thrill of victory that had seemed so elusive. When we fell we’d take the hand reaching down to set us on our feet again. We’d look up into the eyes of the one who loves us so, and resume racing toward the goal, laughing as we went.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
