Tears From the Other Room

Becoming a parent has been the best, yet most challenging experience of my life.  Try as they might, no one can quite prepare you for what it’s like to be a parent.  I had so many people give me advice, tips, tricks, cautions, etc., which were all so helpful in their own way!  But none of them could fully prepare me for what was ahead.  Probably one of the most unexpected things about becoming a parent is how much it’s taught me about my relationship with my Heavenly Father.  It has brought to life so many characteristics of our Heavenly Father and caused me to experience them in a whole new light.

One night I pulled myself out of bed (who knows what time it was because it all blends together at that time of night!) to answer the upset call of our sweet little girl, Tali, who was sleeping in her bedroom next to ours.  I walked into her dimly lit room and peered into her crib to see what she needed.  Did the pacifier fall out of her mouth?  Is she hungry?  Is she cold?  As soon as she saw my face, her face lit up with the sweetest smile and the tears instantly stopped. After offering the pacifier that was quickly spit back at me, I determined that this was not a quick fix situation, the girl was hungry!  “I’ll be right back Bug,” I told her as I turned and headed for the door.  I made a quick jaunt to the kitchen to throw a bottle in the warmer and as soon as I opened the fridge door, the crying started again from the other room.  “I just need two seconds to start the bottle warming and I’ll be back to get you,” I thought to myself.  Once I got the bottle warming, I went back to her room, scooped her up, and brought her to the kitchen to wait with me.  As we stood there in the kitchen waiting, she was quiet and content waiting for her midnight snack to be ready.  “See Bug, I told you I’d be right back!”

As I reflect on that instance, and the many others like it that we’ve already experienced in our short time as parents, I can’t help but wonder how often this is me in my relationship with the Lord?  How often do I panic when I feel He is “out of sight?”  Our kitchen is about a ten second walk from Tali’s room, not far at all!  But at five months old, she’s too little to understand that I’m still there, even though she can’t see me.  When I’m out of sight, she thinks I’m not there.  As a parent, I reassure Tali many, many times a day that I will not leave her!  I am constantly telling her that “I will be right back,” or “just one second” because I want her to know that she is never alone and that I am always there for her.

Now, I’m only human.  I am in no way perfect, nor will I ever be perfect!  But if I, in my finite humanness, want my daughter to know that she is never alone, how much more does our Heavenly Father want us to know that?  There are many places in scripture where we see God’s promise to never leave us.  Hebrews 13:5 says, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  The Lord said this to the Israelites when they were headed into the promised land, when they were doubting whether God was still with them.  And what was His reassurance to them?  That He will never, ever leave them.

Not only do we see God’s promise to never leave us documented all over in Scripture, but we also see the reality of this promise come to fruition time and time again.  We see that our God is faithful to not only promise to never leave us, but to ACTUALLY never leave us!  We see this played out in the story of the Israelites and in the story of Abraham, we see this in the stories of Ruth and Esther, the stories of Daniel in the lion’s den and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.  We see it in the story of David when he fights the giant Goliath, and in the story of Noah when he builds the ark and is laughed at by everyone around him.  And those are just a few stories from the Old Testament!  That’s just a glimpse of the faithfulness of God to His people.  That doesn’t even touch the New Testament stories!  We see over and over again God’s faithfulness to Paul and the believers throughout the New Testament.

Not only can we see God’s faithfulness in the stories we read in Scripture, but I believe that each one of us could tell contentless stories of God’s faithfulness in our own lives today.  I know that I could tell you story after story of how God has been faithful in my own life.  How He has shown up time and again when I have felt alone and scared.  But I could also tell you countless stories of when I have been the frightened child crying in the next room.  When I have been afraid that I have been left to fend for myself, doubting God’s promise to never leave me.  But you know what, God still shows up!  Because He is a faithful God who keeps His promises.  No matter how much I doubt, no matter how much I cry, He is still there to reassure me and be there for me.  Why?  Because our God is a faithful God!

So, my challenge to us as believers is this: to recognize God’s faithfulness in our lives and share about it!  When is the last time you intentionally recognized God’s faithfulness in your life or told someone about it?  You never know who’s struggling with being the crying baby in the other room.  So, let’s make it our goal in the days, weeks, and months ahead to intentionally recognize God’s faithfulness in our lives and share it with those around us.  We have the privilege of getting to read stories in Scripture of God’s faithfulness.  But God’s didn’t stop being faithful there!  He continues to be faithful to this day.  Let’s recognize it and share it!