There’s Room For More
The sadness I feel at my mom saying, ‘I was never a child’ is overwhelming. The oldest daughter in a large depression era family remembers carrying babies on her hip at a young age. Five children in five years kept life interesting and busy with work. A mother’s lap wasn’t something she sat on because mom was ‘always’ pregnant. Even so, her mother struggled with being affectionate and loving. Even though my mom has excused her mother’s coldness with the understanding of so many little ones in a few years and all the work that comes with a big family, it left a life-long mark of rejection.
What she said next struck me with joy. ‘There is always room for more.’ More love, more affection, more affirmation, more encouragement, more snuggles - all the things she doesn’t remember getting as a child because after all…she was ‘never a child’. It was more a case of her mom ‘never being a loving mom’.
But how can you go back in time? There are no do-overs. Just an aching sense of loss that digs deep.
Today, I see my young women friends with many babies and heavy with the next one on the way, cuddling and loving on their babies. And it blesses me. Children are a gift from the Lord.
“If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.” Luke 11:13 ESV
And remember the Christmas story that tells us about no room at the inn? Luke 2:7 "And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn."
When you make room for Jesus, you will always have the capacity to make room for more!
Keep asking, seeking and knocking!
