It is inconceivable that the Creator of the world wants an appointment with me, but it’s not for me to understand; it’s just for me to attend.
Jim Stockdale
“Eva, will you please focus so I can get this dress on you!” “But Mommy!” “Eva, I do not want to hear complaints about the dress. Get it on.” “But Mommy!” “What is it, Eva Jewel.” “Mommy, don’t you think I should take off my outgown (nightgown) first?” “Oh, dear.” Through our laughter, I giggled, “Yes, I think that might be best.”
Then there’s Charlotte. She is like a young foal who has just found her legs in the springtime. If I get one half of her nailed down, I lose the other half. She is as bouncy and slippery as they come. Charlotte’s soul dances from her eyes when she smiles.
Watching her take a nap is pure entertainment. She goes down peacefully. Then, in about twenty minutes, I hear her talking to her mobile while she shakes her paci back and forth as fast as she can. When I arrive to calm her, she’s at the opposite end of her crib, backed into a corner. I lay her back down only to be met by her roll-over tricks, smiles, and sounds. It is an endless, exhausting, yet adorable cycle.
No matter the hour, it seems mommy is on call. Even during my early morning office hours, the girls seem to think they should join me. Eva loves my home office. She has a little desk where she writes down words on paper to make copies. Afterward, begin the stapling and paperclip fiasco. Charlotte finds her way to my lap, smiling and kicking her feet all the while. I have become quite skilled at typing one-handed.
With pursued patience and some frustration, I ask the Lord to meet me in the middle of my day.
When you have children, especially little ones, a quiet place to pray can be an impossible place to find.
I used to fret about this until the Lord quieted my concern by assuring me HE could rise above the noise.
How gracious Jesus is to women, mothers in particular. Life finds us busy picking up toys and cleaning baseboards. In John 4: 3-4, we read about the woman at the well. It reads, “He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria.” This was not only geographical but a divine compulsion. The shortest way to Galilee was through Samaria. History teaches us that he went through the city of Sychar, where Jacob’s well was located. While His disciples went to buy food, He stopped at the well for a drink. Jesus had an appointment to keep. He knew this woman would be coming to draw water, and He needed to meet with her.
The woman at the well had made many mistakes and carried a lot of baggage. Typically women drew water in the early morning hours, but she went to the well when no one would be there. She was an outcast, scorned.
I want to bring to your attention her desperate need for time with the Master- time she did not have. In those days, women were responsible for many things, same as today, except the tasks were different. I have read that some of their duties were to tend to the sick, care for their families, build fires and keep them ablaze. If they lived in tents, it was their responsibility to set up and tear down the tents. Women hauled firewood and made ready any kill for the table. Not to mention clothes making, pottery sculpting, and preparing the dead for burial.
It all writes so simply as if their days went according to this apathetic arranged list I have just laid out. However, their lives were anything but simple. Life was hard, and women were seen more as possessions than treasured jewels in one’s midst.
What I find remarkable about Jesus is that He went out of his way to meet with this lady during her daily chores. He took time to give her a drink from the well that would never run dry (John 4:13-14). Jesus exposed her sin and taught her a better way to live.
Time with the Master will expose, correct, and instruct (2 Timothy 3:16).
It’s not a well that I draw water from, but it is a dishwasher that I load, a table that I set, and floors that I vacuum. And yet, in an instant, with my hands raised in a moment of praise, Jesus shows up, and I take a drink from the same well that never runs dry.
In the humdrums of my day, my children meet Jesus. My response to a cough, a scrape, or a scare will reflect where I draw my water.
With little ones, quiet time with Jesus can be loud and interrupted at best. His presence doesn’t look like the mountain top of glory that we imagine, but more like muddy feet and smeared window pains (that you JUST mopped and cleaned). It seems as though I claw and scrape to carve out my quiet time with the Lord, only to find I have cleared a path for two little ones. In his gentle, wise way, my father told me, “Don’t make your time with the Lord a hill to die on. Christ already did that.” He wrote…
“Lord, let me still feel your presence when I don’t hear the cello and acoustic guitar nor see the flickering candlelight. Please help Your Spirit lead me in the noisiness of my day when the horns are honking, and red lights replace the candlelight. When grinding gears and roaring engines have replaced the acoustic strings, let me move through my day with the Holy Spirit’s oil lubricant upon my life. May the water flowing from the well within me keep me from overheating and losing my cool. Keep me on the path of righteousness when the freeway of sin calls to me. May your still small voice be heard above the din, and may I flourish like the tree planted by the river, whose leaves do not whither nor does it cast off its fruit before ripening.”
Amen
Make time to draw water. The Keeper of the well is waiting to meet you.
Welcome Home
“So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.” Exodus 33:11
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COMING SOON
BOOK TWO IN THE HOME SWEET HOME SERIES.
WATCH FOR IT SPRING 2022
