Young children have a sense of being footloose and fancy free. They know nothing of the dangers of life, know nothing about worry, and do not have a fear of things such as the natural force of gravity. 

          Unrestrained 

Our youngest son was the one who refused the limits of gravity for the longest time. At a very young age, he began to challenge the force of gravity. Around the age of six months, he developed the habit of crawling out of his crib. Night after night the household was awakened by a loud thud, followed by a deafening scream as Jordan landed on the wooden floor of the bedroom he shared with his brothers. 

Though his fall was painful, it was not enough to stop him from his nightly climb out of the crib. 

His brothers begged me to move their little brother to a different place where they would not be bothered by his loud, disruptive crying in the middle of the night. Instead, I simply padded the floor beside his crib with cushions so that when he fell, he’d have a softer landing.

This was just the beginning of his fearless history with gravity. As a teenager, he climbed satellite towers just for the fun of it, train trestles over the lake for a high dive into the water, and ascended to the rooftops of buildings downtown to play “capture the flag”. Fortunately, he’s grown into a man who now respects gravity and its natural force.

Though none of us will ever defy the force of gravity, we can defy the fears that pull us down, threatening to keep us constrained by all the imagined “what ifs”.

Fears are numerous and abundant. They come in all shapes and sizes and at every stage and age of our lives. Like gravity, fears surround us. 

But, there is one thing that expels unfounded fears from our lives; God’s love. 

God’s love is perfect, unconditional, honest, truthful and abundant. This kind of love always motivates, moves and draws us away from our unwarranted worries and anxieties and toward assurance, rest and ease. 

 The love God offers goes beyond anything we can ever imagine or explain. But once we experience it, we discover it is real. 

 Why bother to be footloose and fancy free? Giving in to God’s love for us releases the weight of our worries and fears bringing us back to that childlike sense of endless possibilities awaiting.