I love bedtime! Watching my boys splash around in the tub, dressing them in clean, PJs while inhaling the sweet smell of clean hair (which doesn’t happen to often with two little boys!), reading story books and a Bible story, then tucking them into comfy sheets and favorite blankies, and settling down for prayers…The process just makes my heart swell, so thankful that I have the opportunity to be a mom to these two little miracles that are my sons.
One night last year, after finishing our bedtime routine, my then four-year-old, Jesse, and I were talking about Jesus. We talked about how Jesus was God’s son, how He loved and healed people, and how he died on the cross and for all of the wrong things every person would ever do, and rose from the dead so that someday, if we ask Jesus into our hearts, we could live with Him in Heaven. Jesse sat quietly for a moment, then, prodding his chest, stated, “I tried to ask Jesus into my heart, but he can’t get through the bones.”
Do you ever feel like that? Even as a Christian, I feel like Jesus has a hard time getting through to my heart sometimes. I want Jesus to get to those soft, squishy parts that hurt or need healing, or to burrow into the core of what’s really important, and unfold His perfect plan. But, more often than I care to admit it, my plans, weakness, worries, and downright stubbornness get in the way.
Since God has been whispering His desire for me to open my heart more to Him, it does not surprise me then that today’s reading included Psalm 6. Verses 1-3 read, “O Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage. Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. I am sick at heart. How long, O Lord, until you restore me?”
I pray in this Lenten season, that God will do a restorative work on your heart, too! Even in the midst of being busy, and whatever obstacles we may try to construct, that you would allow Jesus to get through your bones, into the heart of what He desires for and from you.
Amy (Giberson) Plew has been involved with Delanco Camp as a scamper, camper, counselor, worship leader, and dean of women. She currently lives in Bluffton, S.C., with her husband Jared and sons Jesse (5) and Micah (1). Image credit: via Wikimedia
