THERE

“So I [Hannah] have  also dedicated him [Samuel]  to the LORD;
as long as he lives he is dedicated to the LORD.”  
And he worshiped the LORD there.
1 Samuel 1:28

 

           As I  write these words my own children are 22, 20, 18, and 14.   It is an otherwise  exasperating time to be a parent.   The highs are high and the lows are low.  My kids seem to weave in and out of my  life.  Although I could stand a  whole lot more weaving in, it seems that God’s way is to have them weave out  more much more than weave in.  I  find myself in a season of my life with my adult children where I am wanting to  fix, help, advise, check, guide, admonish, warn, ask, and talk, talk, talk.  (It’s no wonder they are more in to  weaving out.)  I heard a quote recently that goes something like this: The hardest thing to do is nothing. So perhaps it’s time to do [and I might add “say”] nothing.  Sigh.           
 
        Hannah gave her three-year old son Samuel to the Lord. She not only dedicated him to the Lord, she left him as a child at the temple with the priest Eli, only to see Samuel yearly after that.  "And his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice” (1Sam. 2:19). What was this mother made of?  How did she do this? She was here – she left him there.
      
         As I stand here and my children stand there, how do I go about trusting the Lord and fully releasing my children to Him? Could I begin to enjoy in a whole new way those times they weave in?  How do I let go? What can I do behind the scenes for them? Hannah made a cloak for Samuel.  I wonder for how many years she did this.  And with each stitch she made, what was she thinking?  How was she praying?   She began with a “little cloak”—what size was the last one she made?
    
         Although there can be a huge gap between “here” and “there,” the common thread is God—a God who is to be exalted and praised in every season of our  lives, with every breath we take, with every struggle we face. It is He who “keeps the feet of His godly ones” (1 Sam. 2:9), weaving notwithstanding.