I have this beautiful antique rocking chair. Salvaged from a loft over our garage. Stripped down and refinished by the skillful and loving hands of my grandparents. It was love at first sight for me and I was a preschooler when we found it.
Each time we have moved--and we have moved around a lot--we take the chair with us. Other treasures would get stored away, but the chair was always given a place to rest in a room, usually tucked snugly into a corner of my study. Reserved for special times. Reflective times. Insecure times. Times when I was in need of special comforting.
This move was different. We moved in June and our new baby was due in August. My daughter was the one who was pregnant, but we were expecting a baby! So, when we moved, I placed the rocker in the corner of the master bedroom, awaiting the arrival of our first grandchild and for the rocker to serve the purpose it was created for.
August arrived and so did our granddaughter. Perfect and precious and loved beyond measure. But even perfect and precious babies have problems falling asleep sometimes, and one evening she was particularly agitated. I decided to retire to my bedroom and rock her in my special chair.
I cradled her to my chest and sat in my beloved chair. CRASH! My world came tumbling down swiftly, noisily, and without a single warning. I could not keep us from falling. What I had been relying on for support was in pieces beneath me.
And the bundle in my arms? Still in my arms. Still gazing up at me with wide, wakeful eyes. Unfazed by the splintered remains around us. Unfazed by the vicious corner of the dresser we had miraculously avoided on our way to the floor. Her focus was on the one who held her...not on the circumstances surrounding her.
Not only is she precious and perfect! She is also wise!! Where is my focus when circumstances are crashing and crumbling all around me? Am I frantically scanning the horizon for jagged corners and splintered remains? Or is my gaze locked onto the One who is holding me in His loving embrace?
Let me live forever in Your sanctuary, safe beneath the shelter
of your wings. Psalm 61:4 NLT
