I walk circles around the dog park near my house and read my moms text messages over and over again. Its the only contact we have had since she left for Tanzania almost two weeks ago and its the longest we have ever gone without talking on the phone. Her messages take me out of my tiny world where the temperature rivals that of hell (I can only guess) and my routine follows a boring rotation. She has spent the past two weeks in safari, painting schools, and adding the final touches to a hospital that will serve the underprivileged village. I have spent the past two weeks wallowing in my boredom, cleaning our house in what seems like circles, and praying that her and my dad would make it back to the US no worse for the wear.
Her last text brings tears to my eyes and she tells me about the orphanage that they visited and seemingly hopeless cases of the sick, abandoned, and heart broken. I can only imagine. My mother is a mom in every since of the word, her nurturing is only matched by her ability to listen and understand even the most dire of cases. Her arms have held my broken heart far too many times and her words can still sooth even the worst of days. I can picture the children lighting up as my mom reaches out to give them what they will never know, they love of a mother.
It is in this that I realize how much of a mother our own God is, how much he nurture, soothes, and comforts. I realize how much he lends an ear to the desperate and promises love to even the most broken of his children. He is indeed a father but he is also the worlds greatest mother. My mom reminded me of this fact when she told me about Jacqueline, an baby girl who screamed unable to be coddled. Sickness made it unable for her to be held and so my mother sat, her hands reaching through the crib showing Jacqueline love in the only way she could. The effect was instant, the screaming stopped and I can only imagine the small child scooting closer and closer to her cage of a crib to get next to my mothers loving arms. My mom told me that sitting next to the crib, soothing the tiny baby she got an image of our heavenly mother. How often has God come and sat next to my cage of a crib and reached his hands through the bars, soothing my cries. How often does he sit with me for hours, holding my hand so that I can make it through the next minute. My moms word picture was perfect but a tiny voice in my soul told me he did more. In almost a whisper I could hear her say, “I don’t just sit next to the crib I get into it with you.”
It is in this that I realize how much of a mother our own God is, how much he nurture, soothes, and comforts. I realize how much he lends an ear to the desperate and promises love to even the most broken of his children. He is indeed a father but he is also the worlds greatest mother. My mom reminded me of this fact when she told me about Jacqueline, an baby girl who screamed unable to be coddled. Sickness made it unable for her to be held and so my mother sat, her hands reaching through the crib showing Jacqueline love in the only way she could. The effect was instant, the screaming stopped and I can only imagine the small child scooting closer and closer to her cage of a crib to get next to my mothers loving arms. My mom told me that sitting next to the crib, soothing the tiny baby she got an image of our heavenly mother. How often has God come and sat next to my cage of a crib and reached his hands through the bars, soothing my cries. How often does he sit with me for hours, holding my hand so that I can make it through the next minute. My moms word picture was perfect but a tiny voice in my soul told me he did more. In almost a whisper I could hear her say, “I don’t just sit next to the crib I get into it with you.”
Before the cross our world was a cage and the rift between us and our heavenly mother made it so she could only reach her hands through our bars but after the cross Jesus paved the way, he came down and got in out cage since we couldn’t be picked out. He let us fall into his arms in our tiny world just to sooth our tears and let his love fill us. He didn’t let our sickness or our humanity hold him back from his children, instead in the way only a mother can he got in it with us and didn’t let go.
