Little Ricky’s Circle of Trust

Edward R. Morrow was a newscaster who ended every evening newscast with these words, “Good night and good luck.” Every time I hear the word luck, I replace it with question and answer twenty-seven of Heidelberg Catechism. The question is, “What do you understand by the providence of God? Providence is the almighty and ever-present power of God, by which he upholds, as with his Hand, Heaven, Earth and all creatures. And so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, all things, in fact, come to us not by chance, but from His fatherly hand.” As you have read in these previous pages, my whole life was and is a story of God’s providential grace. Sometimes, this truth is a hard pill to swallow. But it is true.

It’s no mystery to anyone that I have always been an adventurer, and a wanderer. When I was a kid, my favorite song was “The Wayward Wind.” There is within me a restlessness. Sailing has always been a cure for my wanderlust. Paul Tournier wrote a book called The Adventure of Living. I now look back on my life as a great adventure. The value of adventure is that you get to enter into your next adventure. My best adventure is that I entered into an intimate relationship with God. God, through my amazing adventure, has made me the person that I was created to be. When my life is over, my adventure will continue. I think about Joshua, in the Old Testament. Joshua was entering into his own adventure of crossing the Jordan River. Before he crossed the river, he asked the people of Israel, “If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day who you will serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15 NIV).

I like the Israelite’s response. They said, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods. It was the Lord our God himself who brought us out of Egypt from the land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey through which we have traveled. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God” (Joshua 24:16–18 NIV).

And so the end of the matter is that Little Ricky has been enveloped in God’s wonderful Circle of Trust. He was in that Circle of Trust from the very moment of conception and will be to his very last breath on this earth. After reading this book, I hope that the one major theme that you can bring home is Psalm 121: “The Lord is your keeper. He will watch over your whole life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore” (Psalm 121:7 NIV).

I have had many keepers in my life. My mother Evelyn chose to keep me. I was close to being aborted. The good doctor did not want an abortion. Jim Schilstra kept me by giving me up, the Walters kept me by taking me in, Robert and Faye kept me by adopting me. Reverend Jim Kok kept me by being the best friend ever. The good doctor Gary Voorman kept me by sending me to California. Of course, there were many others, but the greatest of these keepers has to be Nancy. As Joshua said, “God has performed great signs before my very own eyes, has protected me on my entire journey through which I have traveled”. And now I will forever lean on the everlasting arms of Jesus.

Enjoy your Circle of Trust. We all have one.