Peeping Out from Our Father’s Arms

Helen Syski’s toddler shows her that true spiritual childhood is seeing all the terrors of the world from the safety of our heavenly Daddy’s arms. 

The peace-shattering BOOM resounded across the harbor. My toddler screamed in fright as the first celebratory sparkles snapped and crackled above us on the Fourth of July. He had been proudly a part of the cousin pack enjoying dessert until shock and fear sent him running for the arms of his father.

The rest of the fireworks display was peaceful. My husband turned so that our toddler, peeping shyly out over his daddy’s bicep, could gaze in growing wonder at the sparkly dandelions exploding into the sky. Snuggled deep in Daddy’s arms he was able to process this new situation, knowing and trusting that Daddy could handle it. If Daddy wasn’t afraid, he didn’t need to be either.

There’s Nothing our Daddy in Heaven Can’t Handle

Raising my eyes from the adorable snuggle to the skies above, I realized my son had just shown me true spiritual childhood. I can hide in God’s arms, no matter what is going on around me. There is nothing he doesn’t know about or can’t handle. God doesn’t just “tell it how it is”; He will tell me how it really is. He lends me His supernatural perspective, which takes me from my surface reality to the deeper and yet higher reality of His view. As His daughter, there is never a moment I am not in His arms, or He doesn’t have a plan. From His embrace, I can face whatever it is that sent me running.

Jesus knew this. His daily life and prayer showed the disciples how to live with God as their Father. At the Last Supper, Jesus told His disciples,

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father … Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 14:9-11)

He was perhaps frustrated they were still asking to see the Father after all that time spent with Him, the Son; it would have been serious tunnel vision to only see my toddler and not his father that Fourth of July.

Jesus came to restore our relationship with His Father. In Baptism, we are adopted by God as His daughters and sons. Jesus gifts us the claim to those loving arms of His Abba. There we can process the chaos around us and live from the trust that there is nothing God can’t handle.

Walking in Trust

God is inviting you at every moment to trust Him. Trust that He sees and knows your situation and is already at work. Allow Him to shift your heart to His chest, so that you live from the certainty of his provision, from the certainty that those arms encircling you are not just His, but yours. He is yours by right as His daughter.

A child always belongs in her father’s arms, simply from the fact that she is his daughter. It is not earned; it is given. We belong in our heavenly Father’s arms not because we are sinless, but because Christ is sinless. It is through His worthiness that God has adopted us; there is nothing we can do that breaks God’s promises.

Consider, sister, those fears and pains that you are handling as just you. Run to your Father; let Him embrace you. Then peep again at what terrified you from the safety of His arms, His heartbeat in your ears, His breath lifting and settling you deeper into His embrace. In time you will not just hear the peace-shattering boom, but also see the snap and sparkle of His grace.

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Copyright 2026 Helen Syski
Images: Canva