An Unexpected Lesson

Don’t you just love it when God speaks to you in unexpected ways? Suddenly an average moment brings new meaning to your walk with the Lord and God leaves a lasting impression on your heart. I had one of those moments yesterday as we were travelling to San Antonio.

As a family we travel quite a bit, but we have never travelled with an infant less than 4 months old. I was a little nervous to take the 4 hour car ride with 6 week old Olivia in tow but we had family we wanted to visit and were excited to get away for a small vacation.

The trip really went pretty well. It wasn’t until we had just begun driving through downtown San Antonio that Olivia really began to voice her current distaste for her car seat. Her cries soon became screams, then sobbing wails. I wanted to pull over, but we were just fifteen minutes  from our hotel and it seemed counterproductive to stop, get her out, calm her down and feed her only to put her back in the car seat for another fifteen minutes. So we stuck it out, and oh, was it hard.

There is something about a newborn crying that just pulls at a mommy’s heart. With an older kid you can explain things to them, tell them we’re almost there and get them all excited (and distracted) about the things we are going to do. It is different, and so much harder, with a baby. It isn’t hard because she’s in pain or hurting, because to be honest she wasn’t. She was perfectly safe and healthy. It was hard because there was no way I could explain to her why she was there and why I couldn’t hold her and wipe her tears away at that very moment.

That’s when it hit me. Don’t we sometimes act a lot like that with God? We find ourselves in difficult situations; life becomes hard and our tears begin to flow. We feel like God isn’t there, like He has abandoned us. We can’t see Him or feel Him, and so we just weep and ask Him why He doesn’t rescue us.

But the whole time He is right there.

In the front seat.

His heart aching right along with ours.

He attempts to comfort us with His voice. He tries to tell us that there is a reason for us being there, but many times our own cries are just too loud to hear the voice of God.

When we finally made it to the hotel (after what felt like an eternity) I couldn’t get out of the car fast enough to swoop in and cuddle my sweet baby girl. I told her that I would never leave her and even when she feels like I am far away, I’m not.

How many times has God said that very same thing to you and me?

The next time I find myself in the midst of one of life’s trials I will remember how I felt as I listened to my baby girl cry during that car ride, and I will remember that God feels that very same way for us.