When my friend was a kid, he loved climbing trees. There was one occasion when he fell out of a tree from a great height, landing right on the back of his neck. The pain was intense, but his immediate thought was, “If I start crying and run to mom, she’ll never let me climb the tree again.” So, he kept it to himself.
Not long after, he fell from the same tree again, this time his arm got caught in a crook of branches, leaving him dangling above the ground. Again, his instinct, after climbing out of the precarious situation, was to keep quiet about it because he feared that his mom and dad would ban him from the upper heights—the source of joy he found at the top of the tree.
During another adventure, he was driving his go-kart with one of the neighbor kids, when he took a turn too hard. The neighbor tumbled out, landing on his head. Unlike my friend, our neighbor did not share his priorities. Walking off with tears in his eyes, he said, “I’m going to go tell my mom.” My friend recalls finding that the oddest choice of all. After all wasn’t he having the time of his life? Didn’t he know that his mother would see to it that the fun would end? Didn’t he realize he was making a huge mistake?
This story serves as a poignant illustration of how we often handle our spiritual falls or failings. The fear of losing our 'climbing privileges' can sometimes lead us to hide our hurts, mistakes, or sins, not just from others, but from God Himself.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:14-16
Our instinct is to hide, to obscure, to obfuscate. Hebrews encourages us not to do that. Instead we should be able to approach a place that otherwise ought to be frightening, the throne.
Timothy Keller captures a fundamental truth about human nature and our relationship with God.
“True freedom comes not when we have successfully hidden; it comes when we realize that we have been found out, but are still accepted.”
Timothy Keller
It's this same freedom that Christ offers us—a freedom not just from sin, but from the fear of exposure and the subsequent shame that often follows our failings.
This brings us to the heart of the gospel message: our weaknesses, failings, and sins are not reasons for despair, but opportunities for grace to abound. Just as my brother’s determination to climb, despite the risks, speaks to our own spiritual journeys, so does the assurance that we have someone who catches us when we fall, heals us when we're hurt, and loves us even when we're too afraid to come forward.
So, let this story remind us that our spiritual journey is not about avoiding falls but about learning to trust in the One who has promised to catch us, to heal our wounds, and to carry us to greater heights than any tree can offer. In the freedom of being known by God, we find not just the courage to climb, but the grace to rise again after we fall.
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