Canoes in the Sea

Devotional by Ellyn Wilkoff
(as written to her grandson)

Dear Glenn,

     When your dad was little we used to watch Mr. Rogers.  You get to see some of this man’s ideas in “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.”

     Mr. Rogers liked to sing, just like your dad.  He would sing songs people had shared for generations, but he would put his own ideas inside of the songs.

     His version of Row, Row, Row your boat went like this: “Propel, propel, propel your craft, gently down liquid solution – Extatically, extatically, extatically, extatically, existence is but an illusion.”

     Jesus final temptation with Satan was a life lived within Satan’s parameters.  Satan did a power point slide show of all the earthly kingdoms of all time.  Jesus told Satan that this life was an illusion.  This life wasn’t real because it wasn’t lived under God.

     Glenn, you once had a question for your parents while paddling in a boat.  This question involved time.  You were learning the Lord’s Prayer and trying to understand Time as a concept.  As you rode in the middle of the canoe your parents paddled from the dock to the light house in Maine; you asked, “Are we going to stay out here forever?”

     Glenn, you needed to trust your parents that you would safely return to the shore.  Jesus needed to trust that his Father God, held him in God’s true reality.  Jesus existed before time, for all time. and has given to us the ability to say to Satan, “No, I choose my Father and his reality.”

     We write this idea on our hearts every time we say the Lord’s Prayer, ending it in Doxology (as John Stott says) “For yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, Forever.”

Much Love,

Nana