Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Mighty Oak was Once a Little Nut

At an early age my mom "gave" me a hymn and a scripture - to be fair, she gave my sister one of each too. I can remember feeling so special when they read "my psalm" or sang "my hymn" in church. In some way it rooted me to the ancient words to have others join voice and song to confirm what I had come to think of as mine.

And so it was when E was just a bean of promise on the computer screen, we were looking for a cute little name to use when speaking about said bean without calling the baby, "Bean." E was not our first pregnancy and loss had become all to familiar to us - but we decided to claim the promise of Psalm 66:5 "Awesome are your handiworks, O God!" and from the moment we gripped onto that promise, she became "AwEsome" (ok... I just capitalized the 'e' there to be cute!) The hymn I sang as I rocked my ever growing belly in the overstuffed chambray covered rocker my in-love's had given to me, was "Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing"  Six months after she danced into our lives, when my daddy baptized her on my sister & brother-in-law's ranch, we built an ebenezer. Everyone who came to the baptism brought a rock from the place they called home - and we piled them on top of each other as a reminder that God is our "Rock of Help."

When "A" danced onto the scene we had no idea she was coming. To say she was a surprise is the understatement of our lives. We were still grieving the loss of our twins at 18 weeks gestation - and not at all sure which end was up. I hung on to the sweet words of the song "Glory Baby" and spent the next four months sick... thinking the whole time my thyroid was going wacko (which it was) but all the while sweet little "A" was spinning and forming and dancing around my insides. And it came to pass (and pass... and hurl... and upchuck) that on December 19 (the day after our due date for Tripp & Kennady) I pee'd on a pregnancy test and almost fell off the potty when I saw "Touch Down Jesus" = two lines confirming my mother's suspicions. We were already in the second trimester - God totally surprised us - but this time the computer screen held the image of a perfectly formed little person - no bean of promise here! She had hands and feet and eye sockets. We were so blown away. When we showed little E the picture of her little sibling, she said, "Isn't she sweet... let's call her Honey!" I ran for my bible and found her verse in Psalm 119:103, "How sweet are your promises to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth." And with a laugh I KNEW that Honey's song would be "Great is Thy Faithfulness"! As I rocked E to sleep every night we would sing the chorus to my mother earth shaped belly as "A" knit and spun and twirled.

Several nights ago, I was tucking "A" into bed. Somewhere between reading Guess How Much I Love You and reciting her night-time prayers, she asked me to sing the "Acorn" song. Now, she has asked me to sing songs before about purple dragons or ladybugs... so to that vein, I started to make something up (you know the way mom's do - Familiar tune + goofy lyrics = pure silliness and eruptions of laughter.)

"No, Momma! Not a made-up one... the one about my faithfulness!"

Okay... now I knew what she wanted, but what made her call it the "Acorn" song? So she reminded me that ONE TIME when she asked me why I sing songs to her about God, I had told her that, "a little nut grows into a mighty oak." And somehow she came to think of her song as a little nut... a bean of promise... roots going down and spreading deep.

As a parents, both by birth and by choice/of the heart, we do that hard work of loving these little nuts into the mighty oaks of righteousness! (Isaiah 61:3) So I say, love on! Dream big! Pick a hymn of blessing for your child (even if they are 35 and have children of their own!) Choose a scripture - a promise to claim and pray over their lives... choose to be a blessing... choose to be blessed... choose to bless. When you look at the rings on a tree you can see the years that were hard... rings mark things like drought, plight, fire and flood. Make your mark on the rings of your children's lives... mark them with a blessing and stand firm in the knowledge that He "who knit them together in their mother's womb/heart" loves them ever so much more!

Planting Trees means more of you God... and less of me.


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