Imagine: a two-year old child walking down the steps of her house with a small backpack on her back. The gate is open. She walks out and down the street, as cars whiz by.
“Me do it,” she says, as she keeps walking. She goes down the street, to the corner, and steps off the curb.
This is me when I wander away from Mother God, from the safety of her voice and the warmth of her love. I guess I imagine I am able to do this life myself—all grown-up now.
Or, I wonder why Mother God left the gate open, anyway—why so much freedom if I’m meant to stay near you?
But see this: A mama and a toddler, coming out of the house together. The woman picks the child up and gives her a kiss before putting her down, and putting her backpack on. Together they walk down the walkway and out the gate. They turn left. They are going to the park. The mama knows the way.
And so God wants to go with us on our journeys; She knows the way.
Recently, a verse I memorized fifteen years ago came to mind after not having thought of it, nor read it for many years:
She knows the way that I take; when she has tested me, I will come forth as gold. (Job 23:10, TNIV, my revision)
Mother God isn’t making lots of arbitrary rules or setting up tests I can’t pass. She just wants to go with me because she knows the way. She loves us. Like Jesus, She knows we are like sheep without shepherds or chicks without a hen, when we wander off alone.
I love how, when I wrote the verse above, that I automatically used the word “She.” This is the first time that’s happened.
The Mother God experiment is working.
“Like a lost child, I have wandered away from you. Seek me out as I cling to Your Word.” Psalm 119:153-76 (TNIV)