Kissing the Pain Away

My youngest munchkin cracks me up. He is a mere 2 years old. Occasionally, he will get the smallest bump or scratch and go into a persistent fit - yelling, but not crying - until I kiss it. He is then immediately "just fine!" It is comical, but it also says a lot about the Mother's Heart.

Maybe these kids are setting us up?! They lure us into believing we can kiss away all the pain. Make us believe we can "fix" the parts of this broken world that just HURT!

And....we can't. Not really.

This is something my husband and I have talked about and agonized over - a lot recently. Feeding a wailing infant will quiet the child for the moment...and that gives us a sense that we have met the child's needs. When we CAN do this, we feel confident and useful and empowered. We feel sufficient.

But what happens when we really can't meet human need set before us? Am I ready to be THAT reliant upon God? Am I ready to look at vast, deep, unimaginable need and pain and not be able to meet it in any remotely measureable way? Am I ready to face the reality that Kissing the Pain Away is NOT a reality?

Honest answer? I don't know if I am ready. I suspect I will never be ready, and I will never be okay with it.

What I am ready to do is enter into the pain. I am ready to look, to touch, to hold, to feel, to hurt, to cry out and to sit in silence. I am ready to NOT know.

I am scared. But I am also full of anticipation that God will show that He is faithful to meet me there...in the dirt, in the pain, in the tears, in the confusion, in the unanswered questions.

Actually, the correct perspective is for ME to meet HIM there....since He is already there...waiting for me.

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