Friday morning is just about my favorite time of the week. This is when I get to meet up with a group of friends, to eat good food, laugh, and to discuss things that concern us. Between breakfast and talk, I usually leave there feeling better than I did when I got there.

So, I guess it shouldn't have surprised me that last Friday was an unexpected learning experience....

J was running a bit late, but he usually is. So, I smiled a bit when he walked into the room with his youngest daughter in tow, a charming two-year old princess that I'm awfully fond of. His older daughters were away on a field trip with their mother, and J had Princess with him for the day. She's familiar with all of us, sees us just about every Sunday, but that day she decided she was feeling a bit shy, and hid her face in her daddy's legs.

Well, that's the way it was for a while, anyway. While the conversation went on, and rambled from bad jokes to serious problems, Princess snuggled on daddy's lap as he managed to eat his breakfast over her. Till she decided that she'd been still long enough, and wanted to play for a bit, of course!

She went back and forth between her breakfast and her daddy, finally deciding that daddy was more interesting than the food. She climbed up and down, while J managed to keep his end of the conversation going, never looking distracted or annoyed in the slightest by being turned into somewhat of a jungle gym by the Princess. Finally, to my barely stifled chuckles, she stood on a chair next to J, then threw herself onto his lap, while he expertly fielded his flying daughter and kept her from overshooting and hitting the floor (or the furniture, or the other people.....), never missing a beat while he and Princess were having an obviously marvellous time. Daddy and Princess were very happy, and the rest of us were smiling too.....

So, you might say, what's there to learn from it, other than the fact that two-year olds are just about the best free entertainment around?

Well, this, I guess.

I've always struggled with trust. I'm cheerful and friendly with just about everybody, but I don't let just anyone get close to me. I have a few close friends, some who aren't quite so close but are trustworthy anyway, and the vast majority, acquaintences: whether good or bad, not allowed to get close at all. If I call you friend, I've just given you the highest compliment I know how to give. It means I trust you with my sense of humor, my quirks, my flaws. I've let you get close enough that you are able to hurt me if you want to.

And I've been thinking. Where is God on this scale of trust? I can talk a good game, like most people who attend a church and consider themselves Christian. I claim to trust God with everything that I am, with everything I own, with even the things I keep from the vast majority of people I know. And yet, do I really? Do I trust Him as a friend, as my Father, as Someone who has made it clear that He cares about what happens to me and loves me "as is"?

And I think back to last Friday, watching J and Princess playing their game at the breakfast table. She had absolute trust in her daddy, centered her little world around him, knew that she could fall on him without being dropped. She wasn't scared in the least bit. And the two of them were sharing their happiness together.

Can I do that, will I do that? Trust is a scary thing, even when you know in your heart that the One you should trust can be trusted.

If I fall, will You catch me?