My days at home are filled with requests for me to meet the near-constant needs of my little ones—physical needs, emotional needs, relational needs: “Mommy, I hungry!”; “Mama, I pooped!”; “I need help, Mommy!”; “I want (fill in the blank)!”; “Mama, I sad! I cwying!”; “Wook at dis!”; “Mommy, pway with me!”; “(Crying)”. My children so naturally turn to me whenever they feel a need, and look to me to be able to help them. Because I love them, I try my best to meet their needs when they call, and respond to them again and again: wiping tearful cheeks as well as poopy bottoms, feeding and nursing, playing and reading, teaching and talking, snuggling and listening, and on and on. Each of these seemingly ordinary earthly experiences can point me to the gospel, reminding me both of the hope we have in God the Father’s faithful love for his children, and of my own neediness as his own child.
My role as a mother, loving my own boys, gives me a tiny glimpse of how God, as our heavenly Father, faithfully loves me along with all his other children. It amazes me that God loves us (1 Jn. 3:1), is always faithful (1 Cor. 1:9), sees and hears us (Gen. 16:11, 13), answers us when we call (Matt. 7:7-11; Ps. 91:15), comforts us (2 Cor. 1:4), knows our needs and cares for us (Matt. 6:8, 25-34). He delights in us bringing our needs honestly before him in prayer (Prov. 15:8; Matt. 6:5-14), disciplines us out of love (Heb. 12:3-11), and gives us what is for his glory and our good (Rom. 8:28). Our Father is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Ps. 103:8), and nothing can separate us from the love he bestows upon us in Jesus (Rom. 8:38-39). Given how fiercely even I, in all my imperfections, love my boys, it is astounding to think of how much more our perfect heavenly Father loves me and all of his children.
Witnessing and responding to the constant neediness of my boys also reminds me of my own experience as God’s child. Just as my little ones are often so helpless to help themselves, and even literally cannot survive without my care, I cannot save myself or even sustain myself apart from God’s care. His common grace, shown throughout all creation even as he holds all things together in Jesus (Col. 1:15-20), sustains my physical life and breath (Job 12:10); his special salvific grace expressed in Jesus and given in an ongoing manner through the Holy Spirit sustains my spiritual life (Jn. 10:10; Gal. 5:25). Never has my own need for God’s love and strength been as evident to me as now in this season of early motherhood, when I daily feel my own weakness and neediness as I come again and again to the end of my own physical and emotional and spiritual strength, wondering how on earth I can possible respond to one more cry for help, change one more diaper, wipe one more tear, wake up one more time in the dark hours of the night to nurse, give myself to one more moment of intentional presence with my boys. And yet my children’s neediness and how they cry out to me for help, paired with my own neediness when consistently faced with my own inability, provide repeated opportunities for me to cry to my own heavenly Father for help and strength.
How thankful I am that we have a faithful heavenly Father, whose strength never fails, whose “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9), and who “has given us everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). I hope and pray that remembering how much I am loved and filled by God in Jesus through the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit will encourage me to love my own children from a place of fullness—a fullness that does not originate from me or my own abilities or efforts. I also pray that the Holy Spirit will be growing me in the habit of using the seemingly infinite number of the small daily moments of neediness in motherhood as prompts for humility, reminders to vulnerably confess and pray to my Father for help, and opportunities to worship God and trust in him and his sustaining grace. We can trust that God the Father’s faithfulness toward us gives us “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow” (as celebrated in the hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness”), equipping us to faithfully love our own children and those around us with the love that he first showed us (1 Jn. 4:11).
May remembering God the Father’s faithfulness move us to worship, even as we look to him for help:
“Great is Thy Faithfulness”
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
-“Great is Thy Faithfulness”