Who's Taking Care of Me?Намуна

FEEDING YOUR BABY

Shortly after having my baby, a friend asked what I was doing with all my free time. “Doesn’t the baby just sleep all the time?” they asked. “NO!” I wanted to scream. Moms with new babies know that babies constantly want to eat. I chose to breastfeed, and at the beginning of my son’s life, I felt like I could hardly get anything done in between feedings. There was just enough time to throw in a load of laundry, change clothes, and grab a bite to eat before it was time to nurse again. 

Not every mom can nurse her child for a myriad of reasons, and not every baby eats the same. But every baby has to eat, and we must feed them. If my son didn’t let me know he was hungry with his crying, my body certainly let me know it was time to feed again (thank you, absorbent nursing pads)! Whether you breast or formula feed, babies must eat, and this reality means we must constantly stay attentive and responsive to our babies’ hunger cues and needs. There’s no more sleeping in on weekends; when the baby’s crying in the morning, you feed him! 

In the book of Isaiah, God uses the analogy of a nursing mother to describe himself. “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb?” God asks. God is speaking to his people, the Israelites, who are worrying that God is going to forget and move on from them because of their sin. But in the same way your baby’s need to eat tethers you to them, so God is tethered to his people. No matter how badly his people have messed up, he cannot abandon them. “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands,” God declares in Isaiah 49. If your baby is crying because she is hungry, it’s almost impossible to not go to her, to comfort her and feed her. In the same way, God also says in Isaiah that he has compassion on his children, compassion even greater than a mother has for her baby! These words ring true for those adopted into God’s family through Christ. Just as a nursing mother is to her baby, God is bound to Christians: he cannot forget or move on from them. He is constantly thinking about them. He compassionately responds to their cries. 

Sometimes, we might struggle with feeling like we are asking too much of God, like he is tired of hearing our cries or irritated with meeting our needs. But think about a nursing mother...what happens when her baby doesn’t eat? The milk builds up, sometimes to a painful point! The mother doesn’t want to keep the milk for herself; it’s for the baby! In the same way, God delights in giving his care and love to his children! His love is overflowing. We are not taking from God and leaving him depleted: God wants us to have a constant connection to him through Christ, his love continually flowing out to us. A mother’s milk is finite and may run out, but the supply of God’s love is infinite: it never runs dry. 

Take a moment to rest in your Heavenly Father’s constant dedication and attention to you.