My Mother’s Lap

I was a first child and received a lot of attention. I loved it when my mother held me in her lap, and read stories to me. I remember sitting in her lap listening to the radio. She would rock me in an old rocking chair which my brother has now. There were many long nights when my mom cuddled me in her lap when I was sick or had an earache. Looking back I understand that the special place in her lap those first five years of my life was a place of bonding that assured me of my mother's love.

Not long before I turned five years old my little brother was born. I didn't even know that I was getting a brother until he had already arrived. I wasn't very excited at first, but when my parents brought him home I decided having a little brother might not be too bad. They let me hold him. In fact the first time I held him was in the rocking chair in which my mother held me. 

What I didn't know was that my little brother, Michael Lee, would also be getting lap time. This meant my lap minutes would be cut way back. A fellow can't be too happy when his lap time is reduced. I became very jealous.  I’m sure I was not able to express vebally what I was feeling, but I imagine I concluded that the new kid was honing in on my mother's love for me.

Of course my mother loved me as much as she ever had, but this new arrangement was something that was difficult for a little kid four and a half years old to understand. I eventually worked through the trauma of getting a little brother, and accepted Mike about 10 years ago. Just kidding!

My little mother's lap was not big enough to hold both Mike and me at the same time, but her heart was. There in my mother's lap the assurance of her love for me was firmly established. A mother's lap which holds her children in those early years, her arms that hold them close to her breast, and her soft voice whispering to her frightened child in the darkness of a stormy night that all is well points to a love far greater than her own.

Our Father created the love that is found within a loving mother's heart, her arms and her lap. The Heavenly Father who holds the whole world in his lap (if I might change hands to lap) has enough room to accommodate all of his children at the same time. Our Heavenly Father’s lap is indescribably large.  Oh if we could only understand the enormity of God’s love for us. I’m thinking the reason our mother's laps were filled with so much love is because they themselves spent a great deal of time in the lap of the Father whose love has no end.