K discovered in the last two weeks that he can change the inflections of his voice. He discovered that he can make the tone of his voice go low or high. He learned how to raise his voice at the end of a phrase as to pose a question. But, most importantly K has learned how to scream! Yes, scream. He doesn’t have a reason to scream, he just screams! I think he likes to hear his voice echoing in our house.

Generally, his screaming starts in the morning when he wants us to come and get him from his crib. As a 15 ½ week old, he doesn’t want much anymore. Now, we pick him up and he falls immediately back to sleep without rocking or much feeding. But, he screams for us to come and get him! And it’s not a blood-curdling scream. His screams are just high pitched squeals for Mommy or Daddy to come and GET HIM!

Screaming for Jesus

My pumpkin having a fit

I’ve been meditating on this notion of screaming. How often do we scream for the Lord to come and GET US? Or, do we even need to scream? As a new Mommy, K only needs to make the slightest noise and I’m there! Of course, it’s changed over the last 15 ½ weeks. I don’t jump at his every whimper, but maybe there’s even a lesson there. When I know that he’s OK—he’s fed, dry and safe—I don’t jump at his every squeal. However, if I know that it’s time for a feeding, diaper change, or his onesie is drenched with spit up, I respond to his “requests.” I’ve been thinking… How much more does God respond to our needs when we make the slightest whimper? Not that God is our cosmic bell boy or magic genie here to “make our wish His command”. But, what if our Heavenly Father is there at the slightest whimper to meet our needs and respond to our wants? Now, I didn’t say that He gives us our wants! But, what if He’s there to respond to our wants?

Matthew 6:25-30 (NRSV) says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?”
Here Jesus admonishes us that we do not need to worry about God meeting our needs. He will.

The lessons in this passage are not new to me and I’m sure not new to you, but these lessons have come alive for me since becoming a mother. I know the love and concern that I have for my son. And I know the thoughts that I have concerning him when I feel that he may be in distress. Imagine (or read about) the thoughts that God has concerning his children? Matthew 7:11 rings in my mind. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him” (NRSV)! Wow, isn’t it amazing to think about the love of God that he has for us through Christ Jesus? It’s not that we need to scream for Jesus, but maybe it’s that eternal love that makes us want to scream for him? Our souls are thirsting for the Living God. When can we come and behold the face of God (Psalm 42).

Just as my husband and I meet K’s needs, Jesus will meet the needs of his children. The children of God don’t need to scream for the Father, but maybe we want to sometimes. On those days when we don’t feel like God is around, we feel like we need to scream. I know that sometimes when I’m in the kitchen and out of K’s eyesight, he screams for me. What he doesn’t realize in his infancy is that Mommy’s right there. Maybe that’s the lesson we need to learn? Even though we can’t see or feel Him sometimes, our heavenly Daddy is right there.