IN OUR FATHER'S ARMS

Psalm 131
My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty;  I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.  But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with it’s mother;  Like a weaned child I am content.  Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.

I was a foster parent for 23 years. We only took infants . Most of the time the baby would go to a family member, like an aunt and uncle or grandparent. Rarely would the baby go back to the parents because of drug abuse issues. Most times it would take between three to six months to free the infant to go to a new home, because of court hearings and paperwork.

I found that babies are fairly uncomplicated. They cry if something in their world is not right, like needing a diaper change or if they were hungry or in pain. If you take care of their basic needs then they are happy. Generally when they double their birth weight they will begin to sleep through the night. Somewhere between four to six months you start to feed them solid food, starting with baby cereal mixed with their formula. I liked this time the best. They are at the point of showing a personality, of being aware of their environment.

The normal schedule would be to go to the baby when they started making noise in their crib. I would change their diaper, fix a bottle, use some of the formula to fix a small amount of cereal and get then baby situated, with their bib, in the high chair. I would then feed the baby, laugh at the funny faces they made, (and make funny faces myself) till they were done. Then the last thing would be to have them finish their bottle, usually rocking them, an lastly burping them.

At this point the baby wouldn’t have a care in the world. All their needs had been met and they would be content to just lay there and rock. I, on the other hand, might have a lot of cares to think about. I had a family, a job and all the other cares and responsibilities we as adults have.

This wasn’t the case with David in this psalm that he wrote. He didn’t just have the normal family responsibilities, he had the responsibility of the whole nation of Israel. He had the ability to calm himself. To not think about, “Great matters or things too wonderful for me.” He could put his hope in the Lord and rest in His loving arms, just like a baby in its mothers arms. Totally content.

It seems like our lives today are getting more and more complicated. There are “great matters” that intrude into our lives at a fevered pace. We need to, like David, take time, calm ourselves, and rest in hope and peace in our Father’s arms, both now and forevermore.