In Our Infancy
September 22, 2010
Early this morning Kelly handed Aubrey to me to try to get her back to sleep after she had finished nursing, but she really wasn’t feeling well. As I sat in the rocking chair with my baby girl up on my shoulder, gently patting her back, it was breaking my heart to listen to her struggled breathing. Her throat sounded phlegmy and I could tell she needed to burp, but nothing was coming up.
About two weeks ago Aubrey caught a cold from me, and it was even harder watching her fight that bug as it was her very first “illness” in her life. Now she seems to have caught something from Kelly who is also fighting a really mean cold, so it must have been a different bug since theoretically she should have some immunity against the strain I gave her that she just recovered from.
I got thinking about all this as I started to get sleepy around 6am, trying to calm my baby back to sleep. Aubrey is such a good baby. She hardly fusses at all, even when she’s not comfortable, having trouble breathing or throwing up from an upset tummy. It’s like in her infancy she is already wise enough to know that she needs to go through these trials and fight the viruses and bacteria that are in her environment so that her body and immune system can get stronger as she grows. She is a completely different baby than she was even just a few weeks ago, it’s incredible to watch her change and develop.
I think in many ways, it’s like God is holding us in his arms, rocking us back and forth and comforting us, even when we don’t realize it. And in the grand scheme of things, I believe we are emotionally and spiritually still in our infancy, compared to the incredible potential we have as spiritual beings created in God’s image. He knows when we are struggling, with the same intense awareness that a new parent has as they watch their little infant fighting a cold, hoping and praying that they will soon feel better. God recognizes that we humans live in a world where we will each inevitably encounter our own viruses and demons, and we’ll have to go through pain and struggles in order to grow and build strength of character, and strength of spirit. God knows all this, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t there with us when we are sick, tired, hurting or broken.
I believe Aubrey will feel better soon, and I know that being surrounded with love by her mom and dad will make a huge difference in enabling her body to heal and grow stronger. It’s the same for all of us. The love that God surrounds us with helps us to heal and grow, and it usually comes to us through the friends, family and strangers in our lives. It’s important to remember then, that by treating others with love, we become an extension of God’s love.
