When you need cheetah speed and Jesus power

This after-school news is delivered in a matter-of-fact, businesslike tone.  I’m listening intently. He continues. “So we did pushups and jumping jacks and we ran. I was the fastest.  I ran like a cheetah!”

Oh. Well. So I’m raising a cheetah here. I’d known he was quick, but this was a whole other level.

He pauses in his narration.  Looking up at me, he says quizzically, “Are cheetahs faster than tigers? ‘Cause Tatum’s a tiger. It’s Tatum’s group we’re chasing.” Okay.  I see now why cheetah speed is critical.  In the wild, it’s the quickest who survive. This makes sense in the concrete jungle otherwise known as the playground at recess. It sure does.

Then, in a move that would cause whiplash in the uninitiated, he changes the subject. “So can Jesus make spaghetti by snapping His fingers?”  I’m hangin’ with him. I can hop from girl chases to supernatural spaghetti. I can do that.

I look at his face, innocent eyes shining, curious, with double crown gone wild on the top of his head. “Jesus,” I say, “can just think ‘spaghetti’ and bam. There’s spaghetti!”

Now he’s the one listening, intent. “He’s the most powerful person in the whole world,” I say, knowing this “for sure and for true.”

He’s working it around, trying it out, wanting to know how it works. “But we have powers,” he says tentatively, my superhero wannabe.

“Oh, but Jesus puts His power in us,” I say, speaking straight. “And then we can do big things.”

And there in my kitchen, the light turns on. The truth, it dawns clear in a small, loving heart, and Little, he says this: “So that’s how I can run like a cheetah!”

Shades of Isaiah, one of Mama’s favorite prophets. Who lived long ago, but whose words still thrum power all these years and centuries later. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not faint.” 

The secret of cheetah speed and endurance lies here:  in the waiting. In the waiting upon the Lord, Almighty God, who fills His kids with strength, with power. Who makes His children–those who trust Him enough to wait–to be strong and quick. Who makes His own to fly like the eagle. To run and not grow weary. To walk, not fainting, straight on to blessing.

Jesus Power makes cheetah speed. Makes cheetah speed and eagle wings and legs that don’t wear out. So hold still, dear one. Trust Him enough to wait, and He will keep His word.

Cheetah speed. Jesus Power. Eagle wings.

I’ll take some of that today! Amen?

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