The Heart of Motherhood is Held in the Holding

I, the LORD, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations…” Isaiah 42:6

Freshly born, firsts followed: first gasp of air, first cry, first comfort as they laid her gingerly in my arms. I was her mother, and she was my child! With captivated exuberance, I drew in her every detail placing her tiny hand in mine. In wonderment I marveled at her dainty hand, stroking softly, studying every fine finger print, every line, crevice and crease. Every curve, knuckle and dimple left me breathless in joy, yearning for time to stand still so to, in that moment of firsts, memorize her tiny hand engulfed in mine. Her hand imprinted my heart, and I sat ravished.

What begs the marvel of a child’s tiny hand in a mother’s?

There’s a breathe deep and peaceful comfort in the holding of that warm hand, because you know it was meant for your’s and your’s for it. You’ve loved your child before they could love themselves, before they could return your love, and as you cup that precious hand, every fiber in your being is utterly devoted. They belong. You belong. Together.

And you have dreams and desires, a fantastical plan and purpose for those hands… to work and to worship, to give and to do good, to hold and to help.

As time fares forward, that hand, it changes. It grows. The lines grow longer, the dimples disappear… tiny hands begin exploring, creating, and creating messes. They get hurt. They get burned, sometimes broken, but with gently clasped hand and a compelling love, you lead. And they follow. That once engulfed tiny hand in yours grows, morphing, transforming your hold for each ever changing season of perpetually passing time. Time may change, but your consuming, arresting kind love, remains. Unchanged.

Isn’t is breathlessly beautiful? To consider the heart of motherhood encompassed and portrayed in the simply pure, precious gift and privilege of holding your child’s hand?

And does it not portray the heart of our Heavenly Father? The inexplicable compelling unconditional love, the belonging, the purpose.

Did God in his infinite wisdom give us tiny hands for holding that we may experientially know what holding ours looks like from his perspective?

Embedded into our spiritual DNA, we instinctively replicate and produce that holding. Marvelously enough, we have the privileged wondrous gift of introducing that tiny hand to the Hand that hold ours.

I, the LORD, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations…” Isaiah 42:6