The One Who Does All This

Recently my next door neighbor hurried over in excitement when she saw me sitting on my patio swing with my newborn daughter. In her thick accent that has become familiar enough for me to understand, she praised the health of my child as she snuggled her close.

“Look at that!” she pointed at my baby’s prominent forehead. “In my culture, that means good luck!” She proceeded to point to her long toes and other features. “All of it means good luck! She will be very healthy.”

When she left, she knocked on the wooden picnic table – I suppose as a final assurance of my little one’s good fortune in the world. I smiled at her superstition, but as I watched her disappear into her own house, I felt sadness.

I have never had to be a parent without the peace of Christ ruling over my spirit, my emotions, my thoughts. What must it be like to walk this world, know the tragedies and miseries yet have nothing to assure me that a loving Savior holds it all in His capable hands?

I can't fathom it. I have no idea what it must be like to go to bed at night without committing each of my family members, from my husband to my daughter to my son to my baby girl, to the Lord's loving care and provision. I can only imagine the worry and the panic that would ensue in my heart were I to look at these little ones depending on me for their survival and not know that my dear Savior, Jesus, were looking over my shoulder with greater and purer love for my children than even my mother's heart can hold.

I can rest in the knowledge that He is good. That He is loving. So much so that He was willing to give up his life for me. To walk this earth shroud in a body as weak as mine. To limit all of his unending power and glory for the only reason that He wanted to provide for me a way to be with him. Me... and the children he has put in my care.

For Hannah, I will trust that He is good. His love endures forever. For Noah, I will trust that He is strength, even more in light of our weakness. For Talia, I will trust that He is perfect, and cannot fail. May I lean more heavily upon His everlasting arms each day, and may my family learn to do the same.

Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, O Lord our God, Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this. (Jeremiah 14:22)