READ: ISAIAH 49:13-17; JOHN 10:1-30

I have a bad habit of losing umbrellas. As a little girl, I flipped through a catalog one day and spotted an umbrella I desperately wanted. It featured an array of soft, pastel colors—baby blue, mint green, and lavender. I begged my parents for it and later unwrapped this present with glee. I was in umbrella heaven!

Then one day, after shielding myself from pouring rain at the bus stop with it, I misplaced the umbrella at school. I couldn’t find it anywhere. Although I’d cherished that longed-for umbrella, I couldn’t seem to hang on to it. Even though I tried hard to keep up with something I valued and adored, I just couldn’t manage to hold on to it. Maybe another student took my pastel umbrella; maybe it languished in lost-and-found later in the year. Regardless, I never saw that umbrella again.

What if our relationship with God depended on our own ability to hang on to Him? What if being God’s child hinged on how tightly I could hold on to that identity?

Thankfully, God’s Word sends a different message. While we were powerless, Jesus came to rescue us from sin and provide us with eternal life (Romans 5:6-11). While we were still His enemies, He went to the cross and gave up His life for us. He loved us before we could love Him back (1 John 4:19). He takes the initiative and sets us in His family—not the other way around. God adopts us as His children.

It’s good advice to cling to Jesus throughout life, in good times and bad. No matter how much we love Jesus and seek to follow Him, though, sometimes our grasp weakens. But our assurance flows from God’s strength to cling tightly to us, apart from our flimsy human ability to hang on to Him. We are His much-loved children, and He will allow nothing to snatch us from His hands. • Allison Wilson Lee

• Have you ever lost something you treasured, even though you tried to hold on to it? What happened?

• How is clinging to Jesus and our relationship with Him different from keeping track of a valuable possession? What assurance does God give to those who know Jesus? (Romans 8:1, 15, 31-39; Hebrews 13:5)

“I [Jesus] give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:28 (NIV)