So I babysit a precious nine month old baby girl named Kelsie. I get there at 1:30 after she has gone down for her nap and I do homework or watch TV until I hear her cry through the baby monitor around 3:30. Then I pick her up out of her crib and feed her her bottle. I still don’t know if she knows who I am or thinks I am just a strange girl, but regardless she reaches up to me to pick her up out of her crib because she is so anxious to play after being confined to a bed for a couple hours. She doesn’t know me, but she clings to me. I am her way out. She may not know me, but for at that moment she likes me for that reason alone, and it’s enough for her.
Last week I was talking to a friend who is beyond overwhelmed with school work and the competitiveness of getting into med school. She mentioned that she knows God is there and would listen but that is the last thing she wants in those moments of utter frustration- to pray. One of my other friends mentioned that at the very least it defiantly wouldn’t hurt anything, and would probably even help.
The thing is sometimes we are confined to a crib and even though we would love to get out, we don’t want to ask Him to take us out because to be frank, we don’t fully know that side of Him and are a little bitter because we feel like maybe He is the reason we are in “the crib” in the first place.
SO I was thinking.. Kelsie doesn’t know who I am or where I am going to take her, but she knows that at the very least, it can’t be worse than a being hungry in a crib in a lonely dark room with no toys and a dirty diaper. So day after day she trusts me to take her out with a heart full of hope and faith, like a child.
After a few weeks I think she may be starting to recognize me; I am there when she wakes up from her nap and wants out of the crib and I take her to play. Every time I take her out of the crib, she knows and trust me more. I will be there consistently (duh, I’m getting paid) and as long as she keeps crying when she wakes up, I’ll hear the baby monitor and I’ll be there to pick her up. Not only will I get her out, I will proceed to feed her until she is full, change her diaper and let her play.
Sometimes we realize we want out of our crib and we try to do it all on our own, but the fact is that many times we are not strong enough to scale our cribs. (trust me, I have my own issues of control over my own life and have tried to scale my “crib” on my own. Two words: crib fail.) Other times we prefer to wallow in our despair because it is comfortable, it is easier and we are frustrated we are there in the first place.
And really, not much can be worse than our current situation of “hunger in lonely dark rooms, with no toys and dirty diapers.” Not only will He pick us up, He “satisfy our souls with the richest of foods,” (Psalms 63:5) make us clean, (Mark 1:41) and lead us to something greater than our crib. There’s a new start and a world to be played in if we will just trust Him to pick us up out of the crib, with faith like a child.
Our God is a God of REDEMPTION. Not only did he redeem us from our sins and our pasts life, but he continues to redeem us, time after time. He redeems everything from circumstances and life paths to bad days! Mighty is the redemptive power of the cross! Praise to the God of second chances who hears our calls and rescues us from the depravity of our cribs!
“I called, You answered and You came to my rescue and I, I want to be where You are.”
Some last thoughts: (the PS if you will)
This is what The Lord says in Isaiah 50:2,” When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert..”
And yet we don’t ask this God for help?
It’s ok to be angry. It’s ok to be frustrated. But also let yourself experience the rescue. listen to the lyrics of Psalm 13 (even if you already have it memorized, it’s so great to hear, every time.) It’s the story of humanity, it’s David’s story, it’s my story, and I have a feeling maybe it’s your story too.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmaZAJ7HaqI
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