Lessons from Emma

   Just after returning from helping to care for my newborn granddaughter, I sat in my prayer chair once again and saw before me her tiny trusting face, looking intently into my eyes as if to say, “I am entrusting myself to you without fear, for I know you hold me securely and you love me. I am content to go wherever you take me.”  She later fell asleep, resting against my heart and I thought mine might break with love for her.
   God reminded me upon my return that this is how He loves us:   “Emma doesn’t work for her food or work to be loved.  She doesn’t strive to be successful. She is loved.  She is...and she is loved....You are to be like her, looking into My eyes, knowing I have you secure in My Arms. Trust Me to have chosen—and to choose—what is best...Remaining humble will help keep you tethered to My Peace.”
   This is how He cares for us. This is how He longs for us to trust Him...abandoned entirely and absolutely to His tender, loving care. I would never have allowed little Emma to fall from my arms, even if I had to allow myself to be broken to prevent it.   (Isaiah 53:5)
   We trust man and distrust God.  How ironic. We look to other humans for our fulfillment, our help, our contentment, yet we say, “Why did God let this happen? Why did He do this to me? He must not love me. I must not be important to Him.  He doesn’t care about me. He cares about others, but not me. He is unjust and unequal in His treatment of us.  Or He is not powerful or wise enough to intervene.
   How we malign Him, if we think He doesn’t love us as I love baby Emma...and so very much more. How interesting that Emma's middle name is Grace. God doesn’t require us to comprehend, only to trust. Emma cannot see clearly beyond the borders of her mother’s face. The rest of the world exists like an Impressionist painting. Her mother and father are her world...their voices known from the womb.  May it be so with us. May our Father be our world, our reality...and the world dim and hazy beyond His face, as we hear His voice singing over us.

“And a little child shall lead them...” (Isaiah 11:6)

“Unless you become like one of these, you shall not enter the kingdom...” (Matthew 18:3)