God's Echoes

 

Sometimes teaching my small children things feels like learning them for myself.  It's like I can see a truth to teach them, and as I'm saying it realize it's something I've needed to learn or relearn. Sometimes I convict myself of my own issues when I'm instructing them about theirs.  Like when I tell them that if they don't know how to enjoy the things they have, they won't enjoy the new thing either.  And when I tell to them to remember that their relationship with their brother or sister is far more valuable than the toy they want to snatch or the turn they want to take.

The other day I strapped both of my kids in their car seats and then ran into the house to grab my purse and lock the door.  During the brief minutes I was gone Jackson was chanting "mommy at work" (which is what he always says when I go out of sight), and apparently Kinsey believed him and got it into her head that I had left them in the car and gone to work.  So I return to the car and find Kinsey in hysterical tears.  I ask her why she's crying (I was gone a minute!) and when she finally settles down enough she says through broken tears, "Jackson said you were at work."

I remembered that when I was little I had an irrational fear of my parents leaving me.  If they were out of sight for a couple of minutes, in my little preschool concept of time it was an eternity and surely I had been abandoned.  So I looked into my daughter's tear filled eyes and told her, "Kinsey, I love you. I will never leave you by yourself.  You can trust me.  It might seem like it for a minute sometimes, but I promise I will never leave you alone. Do you believe me?" Kinsey sniffed and nodded yes. In that moment, looking into my daughter's bright blue eyes, I could hear echoes of God's own words to an anxious humanity, resonating with my own anxious heart: "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

I love you. I will never leave you all by yourselves.  You can trust Me. Though it might seem like it sometimes from your limited vantage point, I have promised that I will never abandon you. Do you believe Me?