Toy

On a recent walk while visiting my father, I found a child’s toy ball in a lake in a nearby park. It had been abandoned and left floating in the pond. I thought about how it was sensible of the child or children to leave it behind, after all they may have drowned if they had tried to retrieve it. I also wondered if it was a much loved ball or if the children just went home and requested a new replacement one from their parents without a second thought.

I also speculated about how did the ball feel (if it could express it feelings) about being discarded in the water? Did it feel sad, lonely and miserable? Maybe it looked around and saw the water lilies, the ducks, the water birds and hoped that they would try and play with it instead. Maybe it just enjoyed soaking up the sun and floating on the water.

I wondered how we react in circumstances where we feel as if we have been abandoned by the people that we thought loved us. I know that many people feel that they are victims when this happens and I continued to think about this word ‘victim’ just as I have had to a lot in the last year.

As a Christian I cannot be a victim because whatever happens to me is part of His plan for my life, good, bad or indifferent but when bad things happen I do have to deal with the side effects of those events in my life. I am thankful that God will also help me deal with these difficult times in my life. Psalm 121:3 reassures me that He will always watch over me. “He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.”