Niche

In our new reality of grand mal seizures and aggression brought on by seizure meds, we spend time trying to navigate, normalize, negotiate the newness. It is frustrating, to say the least, that sometimes the very precious child who is ill and demands attention gets lost in the shuffle of all the paperwork, processing, and preparing that is done because of her illness. In the midst of chaos last week, I carved out a "low stimulus niche" for Amelia - and her overwhelmed sisters.

Give me a place to call my own,

Family & friends to make it a home.

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It is in these little things - the faithfulness and commitment necessary to sew a beanbag, carve out a space, make it special and treasured - that motherhood comes into full bloom. It is in the prioritizing...seeing a small task that can and must be completed, and pushing other larger tasks that forever loom in the background in to the background...that mother love can be funneled and felt by the little souls in my care. I am reminded of the places where Christ is a "mother" figure to us in addition to Father - the glimpses we women have into the source of those parts of our nature that may be confusing, may be thwarted or undervalued by our culture, but are most certainly valid and God-given. God is a compassionate, nurturing being just as He is an exorting, teaching Father.

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem. (Isaiah 66:13)

...How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. (Matthew 23:37)

How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. (Psalm 36:7)