This is the fourth entry in the UCCDM Lenten Devotional 2015. This reflection comes to us from Mr. Robert Kates an M.Div. student at Brite Divinity School. 

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and God saved them

God sent out God’s word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction.

Psalm 107:19-20 (NRSV)

As a child, I would cry out to my mother and father when I was afraid, cranky, hungry, or in pain. My parents always seemed to be there for me, coming to my rescue, though today I know they were not. Not that they did not care for me. They were both busy medical doctors, always hearing the cries of others and not always mine. However they did make sure I was always comforted, always held and rocked to sleep, always fed, and always healed, having those ‘boo boos’ on my knees and hands kissed away with kindness.

I was blessed as a child, as many were not and still today aren’t. My parents could not always be there for me or with me, but I have come to know that they desperately cared for me, by supporting me with the love and kindness of others. I was truly blessed as a child.

Many years later, both my mother and father, have passed on to what I believe is the ultimate life to be living. Yet in their absence I have come to know my Mother/Father/God is always, somehow present in my life. Just as my parents were always, somehow present in my life, my Heavenly Parent is also.

I still have periods in my life when I am afraid, cranky, and hungry or in pain. Not as a child anymore, but now as an adult, an adult dealing with the consequences of physical disabilities. And just as that child I have cried out to my God, pleading for comfort, desperately needing the therapeutic solace of being rocked to sleep at night in my pain, to be fed when I could not swallow, and to have my old man ‘boo boo’s’ on my legs massaged away so I could attempt to walk again.

It is not easy feeling like one is a child again, at the mercy of the world around you. But again I am blessed. For my God is always present, through God’s own actions of care or those healing actions by others where God’s spirit resides.

I was blessed as a child, but now I know I am truly blessed even as an adult. Thanks be to God.

Our Mother/Father/God, from time to time…we all cry out to You. From time to time…we all share multiple inabilities within ourselves that we are afraid to face. From time to time…we all become lost and seek your guidance.  So dear God of All possibilities, show us, lead us to awareness, make us face those challenges in life, that from time to time, stand in our way. Make us realize that with Your Support and Your Love, there is always another way, perhaps even a better way. For it is within Your possibilities we find our way and our selves. Amen.