A Weary Momma Rejoices

Every momma I’ve talked to this week has one thing in common. They are so tired. Me too. The busy of this season has caught up to me big time. How about you? 

Not only are all these momma’s tired from the extra activity of the holiday season, they are tired from life. Some of them are in the process of moving. Some are literally weeks or even days away from having a baby. Some just had a baby and are up and down all night feeding. Some are battling viruses that keep making the rounds with their little ones. Some are dealing with health issues and injuries.  There are so many extra things that are weighing all of us down. It’s not like real life pauses and cuts us some slack so we can get our Christmas shopping done. Nope. 

Motherhood is a weary world. How do we rejoice when all we really want for Christmas is a nap and maybe a shower?

The only thing I know for sure, is that when the angel came to the shepherds he said,

“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” 

It would seem weary mother’s fall into the category of “all the people”, right? But what is it that he declared would bring great joy?

A Savior. Christ the Lord.

Take a moment to think about that. What brings our weary hearts great joy is not a completed shopping list, a quiet day without interruption, a house that is in perfect order, not even a nap will bring the joy we need deep down in our weary bones and restless soul. 

It is Jesus. 

I know you know this. I’m just reminding you in case, like me, you have been running through your days praying for a break and looking in dismay at your to-do list that won’t stop growing. 

Let’s remember, not only the hope of the baby in the manger who became the Savior on the cross, but let’s also remember the King on the throne, who is returning to bring peace once and for all to a broken and weary world. May we fall on our knees in surrender today, and find ourselves redeemed from sin and restored to joy. 

My prayer for you and me this week is that our weary hearts, minds and bodies would find joy in Christ. I pray that we will rest in the hope of our Savior as we remind ourselves daily of the work he has finished on our behalf, the work of saving our souls from the sin that steals our joy and frustrates our peace. May every weary momma rejoice, not only in the hope of Christ’s first coming, but also in the hope of his second coming, when all things will be made new, and all of our weariness will be gone forever…

Also, I pray you get to take a nap this week!

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,” Luke 1:46-47

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid…As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep me commandments, you will abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.   John 15:9-11

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, 

For, yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. 

Fall on your knees, 

Oh hear the angels’ voices!

O night divine!

O night when Christ was born.

- Adolphe Adam

It's the Little Things

As I stood in my kitchen, scraping uneaten scrambled eggs off plates, my head filled with words. It all made sense as the words ran together in my mind making sentences and paragraphs.

Sitting now at my computer, it's time to put words on the page and I can't do it. All my words seem powerless and small.

I feel this way often-powerless and small. Children know this feeling well. When you are eye-level with the kitchen counter, the kitchen feels huge and getting a snack seems way out of reach! So, what do they do? They look to someone bigger for help.

Do you feel it too - this small feeling that creeps in when reality permeates our carefully built bubble? It threatens to render us powerless and weak and we wonder, “How can I effect change from my small place in this world?”

We must not despise the smallness and allow it to render us powerless. Instead, we must remember the glory of the One whom we are following, and the way he uses the small things to point to the greatness of His own Kingdom.

We must remember the smallness of the mustard seed and the leaven in the bread (Matt. 13:31-32), the reflection of the kingdom of heaven in those things that start small and grow in the greatness of God’s glory.

We must remember that God chooses to use what is foolish to shame the wise, and what is weak to shame the strong. (1 Corinthians 1:27)

We must remember that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, that comfort is for those who mourn, and that the meek will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:3-5)

We must remember the tiny fleas in the concentration camps that had the power to keep Nazi soldiers at bay so that the Ten Boom sisters could teach scripture to the other prisoners and bring hope in one of the darkest seasons of human history. (The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom)

We must remember the small infant who came into this world, nursed in the arms of an awestruck teenage girl, who offers hope for all who are lost in the darkness.

We must remember Jesus.

I remember a small conversation I had one day with my then small three-year-old. She had been asking questions about God throughout the previous two weeks. Her little mind had been filing away names, i.e. Mommy is Heather, the dog is Lilly, the turtle is Donnie, etc. That day she asked, “Who is God?” Wow. Where do I start to explain God to a three-year-old?

“He is the Maker of everything.” I replied, thinking the beginning might be a good place to start.

“No, the other God!” She came back a little perturbed.

“You mean Jesus?” I ask.

“Yes!”

“Well, it’s the same God…” I started to say, then stopped. We’ll save the trinity for another day.

I started again. “Jesus died for you.”

“He loves me?” she asks. We sing the song every night when we tuck her in so I knew she knew the answer.

“Yes.” I turned away, thinking our conversation is over and had ended nicely.

“But why?”

Uh-oh.

“Because he made you. You are his.”

“Why?”

Yep. I was about to step into the never ending “Why?” spiral. I thought for a moment, trying to come up with an answer that will close this interrogation. The shorter catechism of the Westminster Confession popped into my mind, so I went with it.

“So that the world can see his glory and we can enjoy him forever.”

Silence. It went over her head. She saw something shiny and skipped away.

But the thought stuck with me. We are small and live small lives, but we belong to the Creator, and are loved by him deeply. So, when small things like kindness come on stage in the midst of hate, disaster and death, it radiates with his glory.

I am reminded of Christ on the cross forgiving the thief next to him. While in the midst of excruciating pain, surrounded by a mob that continues to scream at him, Jesus extends kindness to the repentant thief and says, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) In the darkest hour, God’s love radiates with the life of Jesus and this glory still illuminates brilliantly thousands of years later.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)

When kindness resembles that of Christ, it is such a stark contrast to evil that it can’t be overlooked. It is so bright, that even a smidgen of it sprinkled in a moment of tragedy shines brightly enough to declare his goodness, bring us joy, and draw us to know him.

In my small place on this planet, I search for the glory of God, because I know it is here if I will but have the eyes to see.

I can’t stop wars, but I can offer kindness to the people living in my house and the house next door, and even the people in a house across town.

I can’t resolve national issues from where I am, but I can resolve to defend those who are victims of a broken world with prayer and help when the opportunity arises.

I can’t offer hope to everyone, but I can teach my children to be advocates for grace, who will then teach their own children, and thereby influence generations with the message of the gospel.

Maybe what I have to offer is very small, laughable even, but it’s not my place to withhold what’s been put in my hands if it’s in my power to give it. Like the little boy with a lunch of fish and bread, I can hand what I have to Jesus and let the glory of God take center stage. 

And so can you, dear Momma. You may think your is small life and has no effect or influence, but you would be wrong to believe that. You are effecting and influencing in ways you may not be aware of because mustard seed smallness is easily overlooked. It’s not our job to decide what God uses for his glory, all we can do is surrender what we have to him and allow him to use it as he sees fit.

I love what Oswald Chambers says in his devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest,

“It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God-but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people…”

May we be faithful to influence our little ones to know Jesus and love him most. May we not grow weary in the ordinary, mundane task of caring for our loves and meeting their small, and occasionally big, needs. May we not be intimidated by the power of evil we see flooding our media feeds. This week may we pray earnestly for the glory of God to be revealed in the darkest places on this planet, as well as in the darkness of our own hearts. May we love all people courageously and offer help faithfully, even when the help we give seems small compared to the great need. Let’s pray that the smallness of our lives would usher in the kingdom of heaven, and we would find our mourning turn to laughter as God’s glory fills the earth.

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”           

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Creepy Critters

“Look at this flower! It’s so pretty!” My 7-year-old daughter jumped off of her bike and ran to the edge of the sidewalk leaving the rest of us behind. She knelt down and reached out her hand to pick the flower and that’s when I spotted it…

A two-foot black snake was not more than a foot away from her in the grass. I opened my mouth to scream at her to back away, but she spotted it at that very second and did what most of us would do. She screamed “SNAKE!” And turned and ran straight towards me, complete terror in her face. She wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my shirt. 

“It’s okay, Baby” I said rather breathlessly as shivers ran their course up and down my spine leaving my gut knotted. We all stood there quietly and watched as the snake (which honestly was probably just as terrified of my seemingly giant daughter) slowly slithered into the bushes and out of sight. I calmly picked up my daughter’s bike and pushed it home as she stayed right by my side, refusing to let go of my arm the rest of the way home. 

This week, as I am reading through the life of Jesus to my daughter’s, I was reminded of another snake. The Gospel of John records a conversation Jesus had with a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus. Nic came to Jesus late at night to avoid being seen in order to ascertain exactly who Jesus was and what he came to do. Jesus starts talking about being born again and Nic just gets confused “How can a man go back into his mother’s womb?” He’s wondering. Nic and Jesus banter back and forth with Jesus making outrageous statements that Nic can’t get his head wrapped around, but then Jesus ends this discussion with something that was sure to click in Nic’s brain. He starts talking about the story of Moses lifting up the snake on a stick in the wilderness. This story is found in Numbers 21 and Nic, as a religious leader, would have had it memorized at an early age. 

Why would Jesus bring this up? You have to skip to the end- to the crucifixion story -to understand what Jesus was saying. He is telling Nic that just as the poison of the snakes in the wilderness brought death to the Israelites, so the poison of sin has brought death to the whole world. Just as the snake was lifted up on a stick in the wilderness and brought healing to those who had been poisoned, so Jesus himself would be lifted up and all who look to him will be healed of the sin that is poisoning their hearts. 

I don’t care how small he is…he doesn’t belong in my kitchen!!!!

Snakes are kind of big deal in our house. All 5 of us girls are pretty terrified of them, and for good reason, as here in Texas we have some of the highest rates of poisonous snake bites. In fact, I walked downstairs one morning to find a small snake had crept through a crack in our back door and was in my kitchen. It was terrifying (that’s the “little guy” in this pic-he was obviously looking for his mommy and got lost). But, what is more terrifying than the poisonous snakes of Texas, is the sin that poisons our hearts. This is what I want my girls to understand. 

It is the snake in the first garden that we have to watch out for. The poison he has infected us with is the most dangerous of all, and the only cure is Jesus. The problem is, we often try to find other cures. We often look to our own ability to behave and make good choices. We often place our hope in our own performance, hoping that if we can do well long enough, we’ll eventually rid ourselves of this poison. Sometimes we try to cure ourselves with “things”. Fill in the blank with your particular brand of poison, be it food, drink, shopping, maybe even relationships that you hope will cure what ails you. This is as absurd as trying to cure a poisonous snake bite by drinking more of the same poison. There is no cure other than Jesus! Without him we will die from this poison! If there were another cure, we would have already administered it and be well, wouldn’t we? We don’t have any other antidote for sin. We must trust Jesus’ death on the cross. 

This past Sunday, we remembered Christ crucified and raised from death. We remembered through singing and hearing the Word of God preached that we were once dead in our sins, but are now alive in him. 

I want my daughter to remember the fear she felt when she saw that snake in hopes that she will remember how to respond to Satan’s temptation. We often do not run from sin because we’ve forgotten that sin brings death. Instead of running from the poison, as my daughter did that day, we move closer to it - maybe even pick it up and play with it for a little while. Then, when sin sinks it’s venomous fangs into our heart, we realize we have been foolish. We should have run like Joseph ran from Potiphar’s wife. Adam and Eve should have run, too. 

And I want to remember how easily sin can creep through the cracks when we are not paying attention. When we find ourselves suddenly confronted by our own sin, it can be unbelievable. How did this happen? How can we keep this from happening again? How can a man be reborn from his mother’s womb?

Thankfully, God did not leave us in our foolishness. Jesus went on to explain to Nicodemus in what is probably the most well-known verse from Scripture. 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16. At the end of John, we see Nicodemus respond to Jesus with saving faith. What is the evidence? He gave his entire life savings for Jesus’ burial (John 19:39). No one still dying from the poison of sin would have done such a generous thing. Some scholars argue that Nicodemus was the first convert to Christianity. He looked upon the Son of Man, lifted up on the cross for the sins of all, and believe.

As you lead your children towards deeper understanding of the gospel of Jesus, remember the death from which you have been saved. Remember the Son of Man lifted up and the hope that can only be found in trusting him. Remember to teach your children to run from snakes (both literally and figuratively) and run to the only Father who can protect and remove the poison from their soul. 

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”…she took of its fruit and ate…. Genesis 3:4-6

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.    1 John 4:10

For further study and encouragement, read John 3; John 19-20; Romans 5.