Parcels of Love

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???????????????????????????????When my brother, sister, and I grew up and got married, all three of us settled fairly close to home. We didn’t plan it that way but landed within quick driving distance of our old stomping grounds and also of our mom and dad. The 17 children between us had the benefit of nearby grandparents who loved spending time with them, and we parents took advantage of every opportunity to be together.

My children, however, have taken a different approach, and 8 of my 9 grands live far, far away. People have said, “Isn’t that hard?”

Yes.

But I can’t do much to change it. Although I visit England annually and get to Florida a couple of times each year, I’m a long-distance granny more than a hands-on one. I’m thankful for our local post office, though, and love sending trinkets to my young relatives thousands of miles away.

Padded mailer.Most often the padded mailers I send are packed with inexpensive trinkets that aren’t worth as much as the postage to mail them. But all children like to receive mail, especially chunky mail, and it’s one more way I can feel lovingly connected to my grands.

Interestingly, God is in the business of love-mail, too. That’s one of several things he had in mind when he inspired the authors of Scripture to write what he told them. And because the Bible has been accurately preserved for thousands of years, we can “check our mail” and receive his “chunky love” by way of countless biblical promises.

But it’s up to us to open the package.

Our world bombards us with lots of attractive alternatives to opening our Bibles. There are colorful magazines, cable TV programs, and that great gobbler-of-time, the internet. If we’re going to enjoy God’s love, we have to be intentional about using the love-gift he’s given us. Without steady determination, we’ll set it aside unopened.

Very old BibleYears ago on another Florida trip, our family visited The Holy Land Experience. Part of that biblical theme park was a walk through an animated time line of the Bible’s history and how it’s been accurately preserved. I’ll never forget looking at an actual Bible someone had protected by using his body as a shield, losing his life in the process. His blood still marked the pages.

The fact that we have access to all the Bibles we want shouldn’t cheapen the treasure each one is. Even when God seems thousands of miles away, his loving promises are close-by daily, hundreds of them. And as Scripture says, none has ever failed.

???????????????????????????????As for my love-parcels to grandchildren, Skylar inadvertently let me know today how eagerly she receives them. While playing in the Florida sunshine she suddenly said, “Midgee! Let’s see if the mail came!” Jumping up and down she said, “Maybe you sent something!”

“God made great and marvelous promises, so that his nature would become part of us.” (2 Peter 1:4)

Weeping and Wailing

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Fussin'Nobody can holler like a newborn. They make an abrasive noise-pollution sort of sound much like a crow cawing or a cat in fight-mode. Pegging it perfectly is difficult, but new babies all seem to agree on how it should sound.

Parents agree on something, too: that it should stop a.s.a.p.

Baby Isaac celebrates his one week birthday tomorrow, and like all babies, he has his moments of wailing. Diaper changes are his least favorite activity, during which he voices his opinion at full volume. When that happens, even grandmas are distressed by the crying.

It’s not that the noise level is intolerable. Isaac’s three older siblings contribute plenty of that, but it never reaches the fever-pitch of a newborn’s cry. When Isaac is wailing, we wonder if he’s in some serious pain or is in another kind of desperate need.

But we have to continually remind ourselves that newborns don’t have much to offer between silence and full-on screaming. They haven’t learned anything about that middle ground, whining, and certainly can’t use words. Hard-core hollering is the best they can do, and it’s usually overkill in comparison to their needs, i.e. major outbursts over minor problems.

Sometimes I wonder if God views our flare-ups against him the same way. Of course we don’t see it as “screaming” directly at him and might even say, “Heaven forbid I should do such a thing!” But when we loudly object to the circumstances he puts us in (or allows us to be in), he’s probably thinking, “Major outbursts over minor problems.”

Although baby Isaac has nature on his side when he’s hollering over every need, we don’t. As adults, especially Christian adults, we ought to know better than to rail against situations just because they’re not ideal. When frustrations and annoyances come, God is hoping we’ll resist the temptation to object and will square off with our needs responsibly, improving what we can, and accepting what we can’t.

It’s good to know, though, that God doesn’t put a complete ban on crying. He knows we’re emotional beings that need to show our feelings. If we look to Scripture for guidance, we see all kinds of godly people in tears: widows, mothers, fathers, oppressed people, Jeremiah, Job, Mary, Hezekiah, Peter, Esau, David, Paul, and Jesus himself, to name a few. The difference between weeping that’s welcomed by God and wailing that’s not, is the condition of the heart behind it.

???????????????????????????????God’s heart is always tuned in to what’s going on in the hearts of people… all people. Nothing slips past him, and everything matters. That’s why a bout of crying that emanates from a sincere, unselfish heart is a call for help he will always answer.

As for little Isaac, he’s still under the lovely protection of God’s Grace for Newborns and can wail all he wants.

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears.” (Hebrews 5:7)

Life is fragile?

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The wonder of birth makes me wonder: How does anyone ever get safely born? And how does a newborn baby make it to adulthood, much less old age? How does it happen without getting derailed along the way, more often than not? Life is fragile!

Or is it?

Three days oldAfter watching Isaac’s birth, I’ve replayed the details in my mind again and again, reliving that natural marvel. And in the process, my old nemesis has dominated me, causing me to wander into flights of fantasy: “What if such-and-such had happened? Or that other thing? Or this one? Isaac wouldn’t have made it! So much could have gone wrong!” And yet here he is, on his 3rd day with us, sleeping safely and serenely in his infant seat.

Isaac had no idea how his old Grandma Midgee was fretting over his safety during those last moments before birth or how anxious she was when it took a few seconds for his just-born body to become animated and cry.

Midwives examiningAn hour beforehand, I had asked the experienced midwives if they were getting nervous as Linnea’s grand finale’ was coming close. For that matter, how did they feel at that same moment with the hundreds of other births they’d facilitated? I said, “Do you ever get stressed over all the things that could go wrong?”

“We don’t get nervous,” Jess said. “We get an exhilarating adrenalin rush and fresh excitement to meet the new baby!”

And suddenly I felt ashamed of myself. Their attitude was lovely. Mine was dismal.

I don’t know what either of them thinks about God, but I believe he’s not only the Creator of life but the Sustainer of it as well. He has always been and always will be actively ruling over “chance” during every single childbirth. Whether Isaac lives or dies isn’t up to a pregnant woman, a group of midwives, an obstetrician, a parent, or a grandma’s fretting. It’s up to God.

And that goes for all of us. (When will I ever learn?)

Not that we should be careless or reckless with our lives, but the ultimate outcome is in the hands of the Almighty. And because that’s true, my nervousness at the moment of Isaac’s birth was completely ridiculous.

If God says so...The bottom line is that life in God’s hands is anything but fragile. It’s more resilient than it seems, especially as we look at a new baby.

As for 3-day-old Isaac, if God says he’ll live to celebrate his 100th birthday, indeed he will.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth…  He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else…   for in him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:24-25,28)