We Are Held

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"

Matthew 6:25-26

I nanny a baby boy who is 6 months old a few days a week. He is so sweet, usually smiling or laughing with his adorable little giggle. But sometimes when he is really tired he cries. He rubs his eyes that he can barely keep open and yawns between the tears. As I look at him, I think to myself, "Yeah, I feel like that somedays too bud."

The other day as I was laying him down for a nap, while I was holding him and looking down I whispered, "It's okay, close your eyes. I'm right here. You are safe. When you wake up, I'll be right here."

I felt God whisper to me, wanting me to know that He is saying the same thing. He is always holding me, whispering peace and showering me with His promises that He will always be there. 

Adults are just babies who grew up, right? We all still have the tendencies to scream when we cannot have something we want, cry when we are fighting something and get scared when we do not feel our caregiver nearby. 

I am writing this as the sweet baby boy rocks in his rocker sound asleep. He will awake soon, with cries of hunger and I will be right there to feed him. If his diaper is wet, I will be right there to clothe him. When he wants to be held and feel me close, I will be right there with my arms around him.

It is as simple as this; we are taken care of. We new it at the beginning as infants but somehow we lost sight of it as we grew up. Allow yourself to be held today. Know that there is always Someone there to feed you, clothe you and wipe away your tears. Close your tired eyes, rest dear one, He is right here. 

Came a Gentle Whisper

The Lord said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by."

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

1 Kings 19:11-12

 

I used to get annoyed when people told me God spoke to you in whispers. I did not understand it. I wanted Him to shout at me, light up flashing signs, make a bush light on fire! I wanted to know that I heard Him correctly before I took the next step. 

The other day I was reading Crash the Chatterbox by Steven Furtick. In one of the chapter he paints a beautiful picture of God and His whispers; our God speaking to us in a way I hadn't thought of before. What Steven said was simple and true:

"God speaks in whispers because he is so close. He doesn't have to shout."

How beautiful it is, that creator of the Universe is so close to us. He is always listening, always understanding, always filling us with His peace, if we would just be still and listen. 

Anyone can hear someone when they shout or make big flashing signs--but God is so close to His children. Just like we listen and know the voice of those we love, we should know God's voice. The still small voice, speaking inside of us...that is God.

God is all-powerful. He can shake the mountains, create and earthquake, and part the seas all with one word. Yet, he is so loving, gentle and intimate that He wants a relationship with each of us. He does not want to just tell us what to do, He wants a continual conversation and intimate relationship with us. 

Are you quieting the world enough to have a continual conversation and intimate relationship with God?