Friday, April 8, 2011

On The Night You Were Born...

On the night you were born,

April 2009
the moon smiled with such wonder

May 2009
that the stars peeked in to see you

June 2009 (the day BigMan was Baptised)
and the night wind whispered,

July 2009
"Life will never be the same."

August 2009 (First time in his highchair)
So enchanted with you were the wind and the rain

September 2009
that they whispered the sound of your wonderful name.

October 2009
It sailed through the farmland
high on the breeze...

November 2009
Over the ocean...

Christmas Day 2009

And through the trees...

February 2010
Until everyone heard it

January 2010
and everyone knew

March 2010
of the one and only ever you.

... to be continued...

Text from: "On the Night You Were Born" by Nancy Tillman.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Praying

"Dear Lord Jesus..."

This is how my mum and dad taught us to pray, and this is how we pray with our children. When BigMan is very, very unwell and coughing, quite often during the middle of the night, I pray with him. This past week, BigMan was having a particularly bad coughing fit and in the middle of it his father and I heard him cry, "Dear Jesus!" It broke my heart to hear him so distressed, but it made me happy too, that at such a tender age he already knows that he can call to Jesus for help. And the comforting thing for me, his mum, is that I know that Jesus does hear the prayers of little children.

"Dangerous Journey: The story of Pigrim's Progress"
When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:14-16

When there's nothing left to be done but cuddle and comfort BigMan, I sing to him the same lullaby my mother sang to me and I recite Psalm 23. BigMan loves the 'Shepherd'. He often asks for mummy to tell him about the 'Shepherd'. I love that.

And just now, as we were finishing our 'Family Worship' with a prayer (BigMan likes us to hold hands, like we do for Grace), I opened my eyes ever so slightly to see my beautiful boy sitting on his Daddy's lap with his eyes squeezed tightly shut. It was oh, so precious.

This print hung in our bedroom while growing up. I used to imagine I was the little girl with her head on Jesus' shoulder.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18:1-5