Mom Heart Moments #79

Those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

MANY YEARS AGO, I juggled three-year-old Sarah, six-month-old Joel, and all the accompanying baggage through multiple security checkpoints and transportation transfers on my way back to America from our home in Austria. I was the only parent, as Clay had stayed behind in Austria to deal with the movers and would follow in a few days.

By the time we’d landed and settled into my mother-in-law’s home that night, however, I knew something was wrong. Joel was lethargic and wheezing and had developed a fever that wouldn’t come down even with medication. I found myself in the emergency room with a deathly ill child and a very concerned doctor.

“Lord,” I prayed in tears as I watched my baby, “let me know that You are here and that I am not alone. Please help me.” I waited in the darkness, yearning for comfort. Gradually, the darkness of the room began to fade as I sensed that somehow, even in this despair, I was not alone.

It was as if the Lord was saying that He felt the same way about me that I felt about my baby boy:

I love you as you love your son. I created My children to know My love. I love you. I am with you. I will never leave you. Even as you actively love Joel, though he is unconscious and unaware because of his grave illness, so I have loved My children, though their grave illness of sin and rebellion has created a temporary sense of separation from Me. Don’t worry; trust Me. I will take care of Joel. I will take care of you.

Do you know —really know —how much God loves you and longs to care for you? Can you wait upon Him for strength today?