Embracing God's Nurturing Love Through Prayer

"so I'm here and what people who do this kind of video thing they call this golden hour it's a good gold it's a good time of day it's kind of time of day when the light is feeding and we're thinking about the end of the day and kids are running around there's a little kid right there and um we are listening to you might be able to hear the sound of a rushian stream this is California it's usually pretty dry um but it makes me think of a couple of things about prayer one is when Jesus said one time I think it's in John 7 if anybody's thirsty come to me and out of their belly will flow rivers of Living Water and by this he meant the spirit that somehow it's possible for us to have life and a connection with God and clearly prayer is a part of that" [00:00:08]

"and so thinking about for you being a parent and having little kids around and for me to watch my child with her children is a very moving thing and there's so much joy lots of other stuff too not constantly Joy um but in so much love and it's so much Beyond just words it's touch its presence and uh was struck not too long ago the Book of Job where uh a lot of when God shows up and he's asking all these questions it's about his relationship with creation and the imagery is so personal and he'll talk about um does the father does the rain have a father well how he goes and see and then um from whose womb does the frost come and you gave birth to well that's God so like a mom like a dad creates this is that way to be in so my question for you is um as a parent with little kids and when you think about the Lord's Prayer using the image of a father or a parent with God how does having children and being the parents affect shape if at all um how you think about prayer and how you think about God or not I" [00:01:00]

"mean so much so for a second I thought you were going to ask what ways is your father like the heavenly father just list them out it's fine I'll listen I didn't think we'd have enough time in this episode we'll have to save that for real long save it for your funeral yeah good idea yeah I mean I just think um the passage I don't even know remember where exactly it is but um when Jesus says or or I don't even know if Jesus is say oh Jerusalem how I want to gather you like a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings um here is that you know um it is Jesus but I couldn't tell you all the top about what CH they yeah but we'll look it up and let you know we'll let you know it's there it's in there it's can it's in the Bible yeah it's not like God helps those who help themselves that's not in the Bible um but I just that um image to me is one of the most beautiful images in the Bible and um that much more so now I think for being a parent" [00:02:24]

"but I remember um my friend Rachel H Evans who was a wonderful writer and teacher um she was a parent she died gosh her youngest was uh Chance's age um right around my son's age and um she was still nursing her when she when Rachel died and Rachel would write a lot about all uh the kind of like feminine imagery in the Bible that's used to talk about God and that I think growing up in probably most expressions of of Christianity not even just Evangelical don't get talked about as much um for a lot of reasons and I just loved the way that she would talk about um like nursing was an act of spiritual like profound spirituality um she would talk about you know the the church the many many Church mothers who kind of nurtured her or I think about um Dallas Willard even talking about how like it's kind of funny sometimes that there are these churches that won't let women preach but they'll let women teach children as if that's not like the most important job in church or on the mission field teach non-white yes men oh yeah oh I didn't know that was a thing yeah so I just like I I think being a mom you know and caring for and like physically and bodily caring for kids both nursing but mostly also just like carrying them all the time and tending to them and being lucky enough that right now I'm in a stage where when they're hurt I can help them that when they're crying it's usually not for more than a few minutes in a time like the fear and scariness of of there being a time when there's much more than that I always thinking when you were saying that along with go through S in the mount I've been reading through this wonderful translation by Carmen Butcher of the CCE of the presence of God and she writes at length about an image that he actually uses in the book but it often gets mistranslated um of actually nursing at the breast as an image of receiving spiritual nurture from about yeah and sometimes instead of breast people will translate it with bosom or something like that yeah but um uh he will actually talk about kind of that image that you um stay at it keep suckling or sucking or whatever the right language it sounds odd but it's very intimate and it's very tender yeah um and uh it's almost like you can't there's hardly an image that's tender enough or intimate enough to describe what can happen with people and the pure state of of receptivity like there is no you know the baby's working to eat but there is like nothing earn it no so let me ask you on that one then uh I I I was talking with somebody not too long and they were saying um their absolute best moments in life are when they are a moon with God because they feel so deeply loved by the way and I was very drawn to that and moved by it but honestly um I often don't feel that way and I have a harder time when I'm alone um actually beli yeah sometimes I'll have deep roads and sometimes it will be very rich often my mind will wander all over the place um for you I think I've ever actually list do you feel like God loves you when you are with him or seek about him or talking to him in a way that you know you love doing with a children no it feels wildly disconnected to me and I think it's just part of my own like I W I wish I did I wish I felt that emotionally I think I maybe a distinction though I would say is that I trust it like I don't know that I you may not feel it but you trust it yeah and I can't um I can't conjure that emotion or or just maybe for me because so much of my life I try to get a good side you know make a good impression and and work hard and you know earn affection and all these things it's like with God I really need to not do that and so if I don't feel something I want to be very honest that I don't feel it you know that feels very important not take it a manufacturer yeah but also to just say the feeling I know like when I read the Bible or read about or read about there are certainly moments in the Bible when people get moved deeply and when Jesus gets moved deeply but mostly we don't have a lot of information about what people are feeling yeah and so I think I can let go of the Primacy of like needing to feel a certain way but also say I in my heart and not just intellectually not just like oh I sent to this but like in my body in my heart keep putting myself in situations where I I see my kids and I have the thought you gift from God they are and then I really feel a sense of like wholeness in thinking that or I I feel a warmth in my chest kind of Bloom for that more and so it's not the same as like wow I just feel God looking at me with Eyes Of Love um but it's like a prayer in that too and I remember in I think the book of Henry Nan's Collective letters which I think is called love Henry um or on at your French um he had a little somewhere in the letters and I don't remember who he was writing to or what the situation was but he said something like I believe even now God is acting towards you loving me I'm just thinking of like yeah I don't necessarily feel uh alone you know warm sunshine on my heart when I think about that every single time but do I maybe do my breathing slow down a little bit sometimes when I think about God looking at me with eyes of love and the same one's eye with that my children wi like yeah a little bit that's a good gift so here's the invitation of the day um you can't reel your way into any motion I mean it's not sake to try to do that so don't try to manufacture any feeling but you can trust you can so trust that just like you know love maybe from a parent maybe for a child maybe in some other relationship that's a little echo of um God's heart toward you just take a moment and trust that and let this be the image oh Jerusalem Jerusalem how often I have longed to gather you like a mother hen gathers her chips another wonderful writer Barbara Brown Taylor talks about what's so powerful in that image is you know there's other animals um if lion is protecting her child she would do it by destroying the enemies the image Jesus chooses a mother hand just says chicks come under my wings and then if a predator comes she will die the mom will die so that her babies can live and that's the newans that Jesus chooses how often I have longed to gather you under my wngs like mother conv that's what he does so let that be the ls let it be with you all this day trust him thanks" [00:03:28]