Day 8 – Our Abba

I’ve spent three nights in Eilat and spent a small fortune. hehehe. It’s SO FUN here. Eee!! Eee!! The dolphins said to say “hi” to you all.

Every day as I spend time around Israelis I keep hearing children say “Abba!” to their dads. And the dad stops, turns and responds “ken?” which means roughly “yes?”. I keep hearing it and wondering what the FULLNESS of that is for us, because we are children of God and He is our Abba – right here on this earth (not in a future heaven, but now).

As I watched the dophins swim, I kept seeing the mom and baby (there are two of them. Somehow they were being highlighted to me, over and over. I watched. I noticed how close they stay together. I thought “cute” but didn’t think any further about it. Then I wondered… I wonder how the baby works out who is the mom. Think about it. The baby pops out the back and is in the water, stunned, blurry eyed and everyone around the baby is HECK of a excited. All the other dolphins in the pod would be squeeking in delight, swimming by, happy as anything… how does the baby know who is the mom? The mother doesn’t have arms to reach out and hold the baby, so how does the baby know who is the mom? It could be anyone of 9 oher dolphins in the pod!

Ok at this point the maternal instinct in women readers are screeching out “they just know!” but… bear with me. hehehe.

I began to think that the way to tell who the mom is. It’s not the who gets SO EXCITED but then leaves. Not the one who looks at you like you’re SO INTERESTING and then leaves. No, the mom is the one who stays near you, doesn’t leave, who helps you and stays quietly close to you… are although she is always happy to see you, she probably doesn’t get HUGELY excited, doesn’t make a big fuss, she’s just smiles kindly. While everyone else is EXCITABLE and perhaps they seem more generous, more fun to be around even! They are definitely more fun when she is disciplining the baby. But she’s in it for the long term, while they are in it for the emotonal hype.

God’s love for me

Slowly I came to see that this is why I keep misunderstanding God’s love for me, He is not the excitable one, He is not the emotion that comes and goes, not the one who does the dramatic stuff. He’s the One who is always there, doesn’t swim away, disciplines us a bit, smiles down lovingly on us – He’s in it for the long term. This brings a deep comfort to me. I don’t have to keep searching for the highs and avoiding the lows… He just always there and smiling (except when He’s not… hehehe).

Staying close to the Holy Spirit

So when we have found our mom, that’s done and dusted… right? No, the leaning is just beginning.

The next day I spoke to a person who works with the dophins and out of the blue she told me that the reason the baby swims alongside the mother is because SWIMMING IS TOO DIFFICULT for the baby, so the baby rests in the side-wash or slip-stream that the mom makes. Uhhhh… duhhh… yes! I get it Lord! They bond together BECAUSE the baby can’t make it alone and it gradually discovers that swimming right next to the mom is the best way to get around and to find food and to go interesting places – without too much hard work. It’s not laziness, the baby actually CAN’T swim hard enough.

And for me, living as a Christian and living in this world is TOO DARN HARD unless I learn to somehow swim alongside the Holy Spirit. It’s probably confusing to the baby at first – is this right, forward a bit, back a bit, too much tail, not enough tail, woooha she turns fast, how do I roll with her? Jumping… oooerr, mom I’m not sure I’m ready for that!

And that’s how it is for me. Out of all these impulses, theology, teachings, who is my “mom” (the Holy Spirit who loves me) and how do I swim with Him?