I watch my girls with my grandchildren. They are often so overwhelmed and I remember! Sleep is elusive and days are long because nights are short. Like so many of us, mothers before them, they’ve been entrusted with these precious lives. They carried them inside their own bodies for nearly a year and now that they’re out, they’ve started developing personalities and minds of their own, similar yet different from their parents. Similar enough to rub but just different enough to baffle. I thank God that they recognize theirs as a sacred trust. I pray for guidance and wisdom for each parent and each child. I pray they will trust the Lord in time with all that pertains to life and godliness.
I resist the urge to recite too often the true adage. They grow up so fast! They truly do and they’re already recognizing this hard truth but God is ever faithful. He chooses our times and He places us in families at specific points in His story. Doctors predict due dates but God alone knows my beginning and my end.
Having watched three little birds of my own fly the nest, I know the ecstasy of seeing them soar and the ache of separation that settles slowly into a mother’s heart. I know the joy of moving from mentor to friend when they come home on their own terms and I know the sting of rejection. All this I feel acutely. Time does not numb the senses or make me forget, so I pray, often and passionately.
“Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child?
Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?
But even if that were possible, I would not forget you!”
Isaiah 49:15 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.49.15.NLT
I am a mother by God’s design. A mother’s heart beats in my chest but God’s Word warns that the heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. Scripture also cautions me to guard my heart above all else for it determines the course of my life. (Jeremiah 17:9, Proverbs 4:23) I have learned that I cannot depend on what I can see or feel for God alone sees my heart as it truly is. I rely on God’s abiding Spirit to teach and remind me of Truth from His redeeming Word. Only in abiding, connected to my true Vine, is my heart safe. Only in Christ am I safe from my own heart.
I learned so many lessons as a parent, lessons lost on me as a young person, even a married one. My Heavenly Father is a patient tutor, as time and again I come to Him, confessing the same failing. Not that He had not forgiven me the first time or the second or the third time. Not that I was unrepentant before. I am forgetful. And my image in a tiny human is so much easier to see than God’s. Seeing myself mirrored in their little faces, in their attitudes or actions gave me pause to wonder just how God could be so good and patient with me.
Though Jesus never fathered children, He chose followers, a dozen of them. His true identity as God the Father surely extended to them as much or more than His heart for His wayward child, Israel.
““O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers!
How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.
And now, look, your house is abandoned.
And you will never see me again until you say, ‘Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’””
Luke 13:34-35 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.13.34-35.NLT
Even to the moment of death, Jesus was teaching, still offering forgiveness, holding out hope, still waiting for His own to understand what He was doing and why. He had been telling them for weeks, maybe months.
“From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law.
He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.”
Matthew 16:21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.16.21.NLT
“His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy.
But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him.”
John 12:16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.12.16.NLT
“It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem.
In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money.
Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple.
He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables.
Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”
Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.”
But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”
“All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
“What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?”
But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body.
After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.
Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him.
But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people.
No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person’s heart.”
John 2:13-25 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.2.22-25.NLT
Even from the cross, Jesus taught as a rabbi, pointing backward and foreword with His words, strategic words forced out with His final breaths, words of encouragement filled with hope and promise, echoing prophecies spoken of old.
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?”
Psalms 22:1 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/psa.22.1.NKJV
“Into your hands I now entrust my spirit.
O Lord, the God of faithfulness, you have rescued and redeemed me.
In mercy you have seen my troubles, and you have cared for me; even during this crisis in my soul I will be radiant with joy, filled with praise for your love and mercy.
You have kept me from being conquered by my enemy; you broke open the way to bring me to freedom, into a beautiful, broad place.”
Psalms 31:5, 7-8 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/psa.31.8.TPT
““I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith.
For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God.
This is because they have never known the Father or me.
Yes, I’m telling you these things now, so that when they happen, you will remember my warning.
I didn’t tell you earlier because I was going to be with you for a while longer.
But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going.
Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you.
But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come.
If I do go away, then I will send him to you.
There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.
He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard.
He will tell you about the future.
He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.
All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’
I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice.
You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy.
It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labor.
When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world.
So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.
At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything.
I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name.
You haven’t done this before.
Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.”
John 16:1-7, 12-15, 20-24 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.16.12.NLT
“Lord, how wonderful you are!
You have stored up so many good things for us, like a treasure chest heaped up and spilling over with blessings— all for those who honor and worship you!
Everybody knows what you can do for those who turn and hide themselves in you.
So hide all your beloved ones in the sheltered, secret place before your face.
Overshadow them with your glory-presence.
Keep them from these accusations, the brutal insults of evil men.
Tuck them safely away in the tabernacle where you dwell.
The name of the Lord is blessed and lifted high!
For his marvelous miracle of mercy protected me when I was overwhelmed by my enemies.
I spoke hastily when I said, “The Lord has deserted me.”
For in truth, you did hear my prayer and came to rescue me.
Listen to me, all you godly ones: Love the Lord with passion!
The Lord protects and preserves all those who are loyal to him.
But he pays back in full all those who reject him in their pride.
So cheer up!
Take courage, all you who love him.
Wait for him to break through for you, all who trust in him!”
Psalms 31:19-24 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/psa.31.24.TPT
“But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God.
The night is about over, dawn is about to break.
Be up and awake to what God is doing!
God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed.
We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight.
Get out of bed and get dressed!
Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute.
Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!”
Romans 13:11-14 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/rom.13.11-14.MSG
“The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to him.
All the families of the nations will bow down before him.
For royal power belongs to the Lord.
He rules all the nations.
Let the rich of the earth feast and worship.
Bow before him, all who are mortal, all whose lives will end as dust.
Our children will also serve him.
Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord.
His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born.
They will hear about everything he has done.”
Psalms 22:27-31 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.22.27-31.NLT
“From the four corners of the earth people are coming to their senses, are running back to God.
Long-lost families are falling on their faces before him.
God has taken charge; from now on he has the last word.
All the power-mongers are before him —worshiping!
All the poor and powerless, too —worshiping!
Along with those who never got it together —worshiping!
Our children and their children will get in on this as the word is passed along from parent to child.
Babies not yet conceived will hear the good news— that God does what he says.”
Psalms 22:27-31 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/psa.22.27-31.MSG
“His spiritual seed shall serve him.
Future generations will hear from us about the wonders of the Victorious Lord.
His generation yet to be born will glorify him.
And they will all declare, “He has done it! It is finished!””
Psalms 22:30-31 TPT
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