UPDATE: Come sit with me mama was first published in 2016, but I’m feeling nostalgic and revisiting those moments with little ones at my feet. Today they are teens who are too busy or embarrassed by mom’s presence. So my mind races back to these moments and holds on tightly.
I know as they grow towards adulthood there is a pulling away but everything in me longs for those words, “come sit with me mama,” “spend time with me mama,” “play with me, mama.”
I’m left wondering if I gave them enough, am I giving them enough, will what I have to give ever be enough.
More than anything I want them to live simple happy lives filled with kindness towards others and joy. The song Simply Man captures so much of what I hope for them.
Come Sit With Me Mama
Originally published March 2016
It’s been awhile since I’ve last sat down to study or write. This morning I carved out a few minutes only to be met with the small voice of a child. “Sit with me, mama.”
It’s not just the writing and the studying I’ve neglected. I’ve been consumed in busy with little time to sit with the ones I love and the activities that nourish me.
Remembering to just be present
So I abandoned, temporarily, my writing and sat with one child while watching the other two playfully wrestle on the floor in front of us. After a few minutes, the cuddle’s intent became clear. She had questions and she needed a willing mother to sit quietly to listen.
She struggles with the concept of God and heaven, creation and miracles. She’s my analytical scientist who has to think through every aspect of faith searching for tangible proof before acceptance.
I often find myself too distracted to listen to the same questions over and over forgetting that it is what she needs most. Just mama’s ear.
Once she knew I was listening she began to ask what heaven is like, declaring her desire to one day be there.
The truth is I don’t know what heaven is like, I can’t just ask Siri or Google like she wants me to and come back with a tangible description. I instead simply explain that the Bible gives us clues, that while it may not answer all of our questions it is the closest glimpse we have to the holy.
I don’t understand heaven, but I know there is someone up above
God in His/Her wonder thought enough of us to leave a glimpse into the holy. We were left with both a book of history and a looking glass filled with promise into the future. Both require interpretation, study, analysis and faith.
In Isaiah 43:16-21 and in Psalm 126 we are asked to look to the past, to remember all the miraculous that God has done for mankind, and in so remembering to hold tight to our faith in the promises left for our eternity.
Psalms 126, ESV
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us;
we are glad.4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the Negeb!
5 Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy!
6 He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.
In the midst of it all, we like Paul, are to remember that our degrees and pedigrees are nothing. It matters not who we came from or where we received our education.
The mysteries of God are beyond that, they are simple enough for the least of us to hold tight to and complicated enough for the most educated to marvel at.
What is most important
Over and over again we are told through Jesus’ life to care for the least of these, to show His love to the unfortanate through action.
Yet in John 12:1-8 we are reminded that there will always be the poor, a good deed or a need for our resources. What is important is to keep our eyes on Christ. When we are to busy doing good to sit in His presence, to marvel at His mysteries, to embrace the quiet voices that beg for our listening ear we are missing the point.
I want a simple life filled with love
I can spend my life doing good. My default is both a strength and a weakness. When I find myself lost in theological context or political debate I always fall back to what does it mean to love in this instance. What does kindness look like here and now.
Sometimes I miss the moments in my desire to serve the poor and broken amongst us. I forget to just sit and be still in the presence of the Almighty, in the presence of my children, in the quiet of the unknown.
When I admitted that I did not know what heaven was like beyond being in the presence of God, my daughter with all her questions snuggled into my side and asked me to read to her the story of Joseph and the Whale.
I opened the Bible and read to her Joseph’s journey from the coat of many colors, to the deceit of his brothers, and the lies of Potiphar’s wife.
She found contentment in hearing that good people, those who do everything right, still end up in dire situations and can somehow manage to still be blessed. And we didn’t even get to the end of the story.
[reminder]2016 Revised Common Lectionary / Fifth Sunday in Lent / March 13th
Isaiah 43:16-21, Psalm 126, Philippians 3:4b-14, John 12:1-8
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