A few months ago, we watched Vivo as a family movie. If you haven’t seen it, it’s an animated musical, with songs by Lin Manuel-Miranda, in which ‘a music-loving kinkajou embarks on the journey of a lifetime to fulfill his destiny and deliver a love song for an old friend.’ 

In one of the songs, Love’s Gonna Pick You Up, two roseate spoonbills called Dancarino and Valentina help Vivo on his quest, and they sing these lyrics:

Love’s gonna pick you up

And never put you down

Love’s gonna kick your butt

And drag you around

You take that road

To deliver that love you found

That one set of footprints

Was love dragging you around.

I enjoyed that. It’s a great contemporary rewrite of the Footprints poem. Just try sticking that on a Christian bookmark! 

I was reminded of it again recently, when reflecting on Psalm 63:

My soul clings to you;

your right hand upholds me.

Psalm 63:8

It’s a striking image. Picture a huge, steady, immovable hand, and standing in the palm, clinging on for dear life to a sleeve or a fingertip, is a small, fragile human being.  

So often it feels to me like I am the one clinging onto God, holding on with whatever strength I can muster. Like it all depends on me. But if I could see things with a broader perspective, I might realise that I’m more secure than I imagine, being effortlessly sustained by Love personified. I’m being picked up, held, and (lovingly) dragged around far more than I am aware. Perhaps the stress that comes from clinging on white-knuckled could be relieved if I only dared to loosen my grip and trust the firm foundation of the right hand of God.

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