HOW TO PUT YOUR FEAR TO REST (Back to Sunday School Series)
Singing “Jesus Loves Me” after lunch sparked an unexpected nap-time revival in Grammy’s house this week.
The portable crib was resurrected, the stuffies were baptized in soapy water, and blanket tents were prepared for the big event.
It’s been a while since anyone truly rested in our family.
It’s been a season of tossing and turning, packing and unpacking, finding a place for disappointment, and wrestling with thoughts like “the designer of baby equipment must hate me since he made everything so hard to figure out.”
It’s crazy to think because of a simple “Jesus Loves Me,” we can finally lay it all down.
Still, the 2-year-old needed some convincing. Even with Big Sissy camped out with her beneath the tent, she needed someone bigger to keep the monsters away.
“Grammy, can you fit?” she asked, patting a sliver of space on the pallet.
I didn’t hesitate to make myself small.
Sometimes, a song’s not enough to ease our racing hearts. We need a hand to hold in the darkness.
If a human Grammy is willing to roll herself up in a ball to assure her two grandbabies that she loves them, how much more will our God?
In John 11, we read about Mary and Martha, two sisters looking for a place to rest amid their fears. They knew Jesus loved them, but something awful happened that made Jesus seem very far away.
It’s as if they wanted to pat the spot next to them and say, “Jesus, can you fit? Can you come into this empty place and hold me? Do you love me enough to stay?”
Jesus could have closed the door on their tears and gone out to answer the one big theological question the big people were asking.
Instead, He pressed into the pain that crushed the sisters’ souls, crawled through their suffering, and sat down in that one small place reserved for God Alone.
Verse 35 reveals how Jesus feels about the things that hurt and scare us.
“Jesus wept.”
Translated in the NTV (New Toddler Version), it reads, “Jesus fit.”
Your Savior doesn’t walk away and let you cry it out. He doesn’t stand in the hallway and sing “Jesus Loves Me” through the door.
Jesus shows you by bending down and coming in close so you can rest.
Wherever you are today, Jesus fits.