Look No Hands
by Malcolm Wood
There’s a story of a young boy who’d just learned to ride a bicycle, and thinking he had this skill well and truly mastered he took his hands off the handlebars and proudly announced to his mother ‘Look Mum no hands!’ And a few minutes later the same child was heard to say ‘Look Mum no teeth!’ This is certainly learning the lessons of life the hard way.
But so often the problem with us is that we’re not prepared to take our hands off our lives and let God take control. After all He made us and knows all about us, what our needs are, where we need to go, what we need to do, and what we need to say to achieve His perfect plan and purposes for our lives.
A friend of ours has a new car and it’s one that parks itself. It really has to be seen to be believed! This car will reverse park alongside the kerb between two parked cars or between two cars in a car park with the greatest of ease and safety. It’s quite remarkable (and un-nerving!) to watch the steering wheel turning unaided from one direction to the other as the car is moved accurately backwards and forwards into position. Sometimes it looks as if it’s moving far too close to other cars in its manoeuvres but no, it has everything under control and achieves its objective perfectly. The wonders of modern technology!
This is how God wants us to be. He wants us to take our hands off the wheel of our lives and let Him have complete and absolute control. But so often our problem is that we see what we consider a potential danger or hazard and assume God hasn’t seen it, or isn’t aware of it. So we grasp for the wheel again, which results in a worse situation. This would certainly be the case if our friend tried to interfere when his car was attempting to do one of its manoeuvres. Our friend has been warned that ‘It only works if you trust it’.
God wants us to have that implicit trust in Him, to take our hands off the ‘steering wheel’ of our life, and let him have full control. It’s only when we do so that we’ll be able to successfully achieve all the difficult and challenging manoeuvres in life.
‘I am trusting Thee to guide me;
Thou alone shalt lead,
Every day and hour supplying
All my need’
Frances Ridley Havergal
Prayer: Dear Lord, on this journey of life, with all its challenges and manoeuvres that I would rather not face, help me to let go and let You take control. Help me to trust You more. Amen.
Malcolm Wood and his wife Anna became part of the Ellel family as House Managers at Ellel Grange in 1990. Since then they have been involved with many aspects of the developing Ministry. From 2001 until 2015 they were Directors of Ellel Scotland where they hosted several International Schools and Operation Blairmore and helped pioneer the exciting Creative Inspiration Weeks. They have three sons.
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