A few years ago my then 3-yr-old daughter, Etta, had eye surgery. It was same day surgery so we went in really early and were in recovery midmorning. We were told that usually kids come out of anesthesia rather disoriented. That was an understatement! She was like a wild animal on my lap. She moved and twisted and fussed and seemed not to want me to comfort her but didn’t want to be anywhere else either. After what seemed a long time, she fell asleep in my arms.
Lately in my daily devotions, I have been focusing on abiding in Christ and what that really means or looks like. Reading Andrew Murray’s book, Abide in Christ, reminds me that I often act like Etta did after surgery. Murray asks, “…is it labour to a little child to rest in his mother’s arms? Is it not the house that keeps the traveller within its shelter? Do not the arms of the mother sustain and keep the little one? And so it is with Jesus…Oh, it is because the blessing is so great that our little hearts cannot rise to apprehend it; it is as if we cannot believe that Christ, the Almighty One, will in very deed keep us all the day…It is as our heart takes in this truth that , when He says, ‘Abide in me,’ ‘Learn of me,’ He really means it, and that it is His own work to keep us abiding when we yield ourselves into the arms of His love and abandon ourselves to His blessed keeping.”(pp 19-20)
I want to be resting/abiding/learning in the everlasting, strong, comforting arms of my heavenly Father but I don’t always relax and trust. I stay there twisting and turning, unable to feel comforted or at peace. Murray again reminds, “It is not the yoke, but resistance to the yoke, that makes the difficulty; whole-hearted surrender to Jesus, as at once our Master and our Keeper, finds and secures the rest.” (pg 20) I pray we all experience this whole-hearted surrender to Him and subsequently, the blessings of abiding in Him.
