Elisa Morgan - Meditations for Mothers: Moments with God Amidst a Busy Nest

Meditations for Mothers

Moments with God Amidst a Busy Nest

Elisa Morgan

Copyright

Meditations for Mothers

Copyright 1999 by Elisa Morgan

Cover art to the electronic edition copyright 2012 by Bondfire Books, LLC.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Electronic edition published 2012 by Bondfire Books, LLC.

Author is represented by Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard St., Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.

ISBN EPUB edition: 978-0-7953-2366-9

To see more from Elisa Morgan, visit FullFill.org.

To Munna

Thank you for loving birds
and for directing my gaze
to follow yours in so much of life

Contents

R EST IS NOT IDLENESS, AND TO LIE SOMETIMES ON THE GRASS UNDER THE TREES ON A SUMMERS DAY LISTENING TO THE MURMUR OF WATER, OR WATCHING THE CLOUDS FLOAT ACROSS THE SKY, IS BY NO MEANS A WASTE OF TIME.

SIR T. LUBBOCK

Longing for Time with God

S hortly after we were married, Evan and I lived in a cozy little ranch-style house. My favorite part of the house was the kitchenthe kitchen window to be exact. In those days, before children, I often spent time at that kitchen window with God, gazing out at petunias in summer and golden aspen in fall. Unhurried and uninterrupted, these times with God fed my soul.

The spring of my daughters birth brought the highlight view. While washing dishes one day, I looked up to find a bird building a nest on the roof beam of our covered patio. Twig after twig, branch after branch, she flew away and back until her messy makings revealed a cuplike wreath of safety. Home.

Over the next few weeks, I watched her hunker down over her eggs, leaving only for the briefest moments. She received visits from another sparrowDaddy, I presumed. One day, scrawny heads popped up over the edge of the nest and, with open-mouthed demands, welcomed themselves into the world. For weeks Id climb up on my kitchen counter, watch the birds, and enjoy Gods creation.

We have since moved from that house. Today the view from my kitchen sink has changed. As I wash dishes, I watch handstands and somersaults, not birds and nature. Instead of golden aspens, I gawk at the TV. I sort through my mental to-do list and often find prayer left untouched at the end of the day.

Children have changed my freedom to spend time with God. Where once I had easy access to him, now noise and busyness and, well, children stand in my way.

I suspect most moms share my struggle. Caught between the demands of sports activities, homework, church programs, and a desire to provide decent meals and family time, most of us have precious little left for God. Whens the last time you prayed without falling asleep? or journaled about Gods work in your life? or read your Bible without interruption?

In Psalm 84:12, the psalmist writes of a similar plight:

How lovely is your dwelling place,

O LORD Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out

for the living God.

In this pilgrimage psalm, written to be sung by those traveling to the temple to make restitution for their sins and to worship God, the psalmist writes of a longing of the heart for God. Because the Old Testament required a high priest to make sacrifices for specific sins, worshipers longed for the temple and the priest so they could obtain forgiveness and access to God.

Verse three goes on,

Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may have her young

a place near your altar,

O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

The psalmist envies the birds who nest daily in the temple and therefore enjoy a daily presence in Gods dwelling.

Mothers are among todays faint of heart who long for a time with God. While we no longer need a high priest to provide the forgiveness Christ offers through his death on the cross, we still long for the temple of time with God. Parent pilgrims grow weary and cry out for God.

This book is about taking a tip from the swallow in the psalm. She built her nest in a place near Gods altar. She lived where God lived. We moms who long for God dont have to go somewhere special to find him. We can spend time with God when we build a nest near him and then enjoy everyday moments in it with him.

The following meditations are written to help you find moments with God in the midst of a busy nest. Theyre short and simple, so you can fit them into your day. At the same time, their messages are designed to stir your thoughts during these days and offer you calm and perspective in your daily life. Accompanying each meditation are questions to ponder called Feather Your Nest, as well as a prayer for the day.

Its true that we can see Gods presence in our lives through many illustrations from creation: the changing weather, animals, the mountains, the ocean. Somehow the pictures of a nest and nesting uniquely capture the challenges mothers face in raising and feeding their young while in desperate need of food themselves.

Its been over six years since we moved into our present house. My son, Ethan, just built a birdhouse with his dad. When it came time to hang it up, there was no question as to where it should go: on the deck outside the breakfast room window. If I raise the blinds, stand on tiptoe, and crane my neck just right, I can see it from the kitchen sink.

RESTING IN THE VERY PRESENCE OF GOD

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all

EMILY DICKINSON

Bird Fact

BIRDS ARE AMONG THE WORLDS MOST SKILLFUL NEST BUILDERS. FEW OTHER CREATURES EXHIBIT SUCH A VARIETY OF ARCHITECTURE OR MATERIALS.

ALEXANDER WETMORE,
SONG AND GARDEN BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA

F OXES HAVE HOLES AND BIRDS OF THE AIR HAVE NESTS, BUT THE SON OF MAN HAS NO PLACE TO LAY HIS HEAD.

MATTHEW 8:20

J ust when were finally ready to lay our weary heads down on our pillows at night, there comes a request for another glass of water or money for the field trip, or Puuuuuhhhlleeeezzzz, Mom, my shirt has to be clean for school tomorrow. One midnight when my son, Ethan, was about six, he appeared at the side of my bed and awakened me with a question about sexand how people do it. I muttered a simplistic reply, but sleep came very slowly after that.

It seems our sleep is constantly interrupted by someone elses need! Were nudged awake by a babys muffled cry, a stuffed animal lobbed across our pillow, or an early-morning plea for cereal.

Jesus understands our exhaustion. He didnt even have a home of his own during the draining days of his ministry. The Bible conveys event after event where Jesus was up early in the morning or confronted by the diseased of the whole town. Following Jesus example in our mothering can, indeed, be costly, and the currency is often our much-needed sleep. Unlike Jesus, we have a place to lay our heads. We just dont have any time.

Jesus not only understands our weariness, he offers a solution by contrasting his own lack of home with the fact that even birds have nests. In order to survive and thrive in these days of mothering, we need to build a home in God and time with him in it.

This is a hard task isnt it? Evidently, its hard even for the birds. Naturalists tell us that our earth is quickly losing habitats for birds. Nesting spots are vital to the continuation of the species, so environmentalists fight to protect them.