Sue Monk Kidd writes about “the flame of joy that burns so mysteriously inside a mother’s heart.”20
Surely all mothers have felt it, that flame of joy which is the satisfaction we find in caring for our children. There’s a deep contentment in feeding them, washing and clothing them, and seeing to their needs.
Of course, that’s only one side of the story. The other side is the days when that flame is rudely drenched in one or more of life’s floods. When the flame is put out, it can take a while to relight it.
But even when that flame of joy is feeble, even when it seems almost gone, most of us watch over our children continuously. We yearn for the best for them; we guide, train and discipline them; in addition, we care for their physical needs. Sometimes we hover and nag.
It all began the day I became a mother, that inseparable mingling of love and concern. I learned it will continue to the end of life on earth when I noticed that my eighty-plus-year-old grandmothers both still yearn over their children, my turning-sixty parents.
This is what James Dobson says: “There is nothing more important to most Christian parents than the salvation of their children. Every other goal and achievement in life is anemic and insignificant compared to this.”21
That is the reason we yearn over our children, watch out for their welfare, sacrifice to nurture and support and train them. It’s because we long for good things for them, the most important thing being heaven.
The way parents yearn over their children is reflected in a much vaster way in the heart of God. In Isaiah 49:15, the Lord says, “Can a woman forget her sucking child . . . ? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”
How possible is it for a mother to forget her baby? Not very likely, and yet it does happen. There are mothers who are negligent or abusive. Even those of us who aren’t negligent or abusive are very human, and our children sometimes suffer from our mistakes.
But if we have become God’s children, we can rest in his care. He will never forget us—our names are engraved on his hands (Isaiah 49:16). He is the ultimate parent, yearning over us, chastening us, longing to give us his best, which is heaven, if we’ll only allow him to cleanse us and lead us there.
To be the children of God means yielding to his kingship and to his authority as a heavenly parent. It means surrendering our lives into his keeping, knowing that despite everything that happens here, God does want to give us his best.
And his best is better than anything we’ve ever been able to imagine.
| Prayer | Reflection |
| Thank you for your watchful care each night and day. Continue to guard me and keep me so that I will never wander away from you, my heavenly Father. | How might God be yearning over me today? |