God as Mother- Part 2

The second week of our JW Institute was about sabbath.

First we read through Psalm 139.  We read though it as a prayer over our children, inserting their names.  It was a really powerful practice and went something like this:

Psalm 139

¹ You have searched Quinn, Lord,
    and you know her.
² You know when she sits and when she rises;
    you perceive her thoughts from afar.
³ You discern her going out and her lying down;
    you are familiar with all her ways.
⁴ Before a word is on her tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem Quinn in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon her.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for her,
    too lofty for her to attain.

⁷ Where can Quinn go from your Spirit?
    Where can she flee from your presence?
⁸ If she goes up to the heavens, you are there;
    if she makes her bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If she rises on the wings of the dawn,
    if she settles on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide Quinn,
    your right hand will hold her fast.
¹¹ If Quinn says, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created Quinn's inmost being;
    you knit her together in my womb.
¹⁴ She praises you because she is fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    Quinn knows that full well.
¹⁵ Quinn's frame was not hidden from you
    when she was made in the secret place,
    when she was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw Quinn's unformed body;
    all the days ordained for her were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to her are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were Quinn to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when Quinn awakes, she is still with you.

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from Quinn, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Does Quinn not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² She has nothing but hatred for them;
     She counts them her enemies.
²³ Search Quinn, God, and know her heart;
    test her and know her anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in Quinn,
    and lead her in the way everlasting.

Here are just a few of the reflections we had: 

vs 5-6- comfort and protection for our children

vs 7-12- God loves them and pursues them even more desperately than we do.  God is always with them, even when we can't be.  Our children have their own independence, they are being guided by the Lord.  Hard moments, fits, lack of sleep.

vs 14-  Godly sense of self to pass on to daughters and sons, and to value and look for in a spouse. "I know that full well."- we need to act like it and set that example. 

After we read over this for our children, Jessi asked us to read it for ourselves... 

Think of how well you know your child.  God sees and knows them even better.  God sees and knows us even better.

** God rests on the 7th day.  The only thing He commands from the creation story is sabbath.  We participate in creation and are commanded to rest.  

The mind that comes to rest is tended 

In ways that it cannot intend:
Is borne, preserved, and comprehended

By what it cannot comprehend.

Your Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by

Your will, not ours.  And it is fit

Our only choice should be to die

Into that rest, or out of it.

~Wendell Berry

Of course I am still reflecting on this and still have a several page print out from Jessi that I need to read, but Quinn just woke from her nap.  :)