I remember the first time I met my little Niomi face-to-face. I had known for 38 weeks that she was there. I talked to her, I sang to her, and I even ate with her. She was with me everywhere I went. From the moment I rise to the moment I laid down, she was with me.
Here was the day that I had been waiting for. The day I would be able to see and feel little Niomi. All roads leading to this point weren’t smooth. I had faced some challenges from bedrest to nausea the entire pregnancy, but finally, I arrived.
Before I knew it, a nurse was handing her to me with all kinds of yuck on her. Another nurse was pulling off the top of my gown. There she was, yuck and all, laying silently on my chest. As she nuzzled herself upon me, I was worried because she was so quiet. “Is she ok,” I asked. Indeed she was, and soon it was time to get her cleaned up.
A nurse took her from my arms, and my Niomi began to yell at the top of her lungs. Everyone was so impressed as the silent baby, now was making clear that she had no intentions of leaving me. At the other end of the hospital room, I could hear her never-ending screaming. Finally, they bring her back to me all dressed to impressed and red as a beet. Back on my chest, the nurse rests her. As soon as Niomi’s body hit mine, she was back to her quiet self.
“Wow, she knows who mom is,” one of the nurses whispered. I have to admit I was proudly gleaming at this point. I realized in this moment, that even though our eyes were connecting for the first time, Niomi knew me and had related to me during our alone time. In my arms, she felt safe. She had entered the unknown, and it was my body that brought her comfort, shelter, and peace. I was familiar, and I was her warmth. In her unknown, I provided a place of certainty.
Do you remember the first time you met Jesus? Do you remember the first time you came to know Him and knew that you just had to surrender your all to Him?
I asked the ladies in our small group this same question. We all concluded that every one of us was in a desperate place when we gave our hearts and lives to the Lord. We were in hopeless seasons of our lives and found ourselves crying out for help. We were in uncertain, challenging situations with unknown endings.
What we all found is that He answered the cry. He heard us, and He came. He pulled us in His arms, drew us into His bosom and quiet the noise within us. Even more spectacular, is we each had to admit that He was always there. Before we met face-to-face and locked eyes with the King of all kings, He was with us. When we sat, when we stood, in our darkness, and in our light, Jesus was there. We just hadn’t been formally introduced yet.
Here is what we noted, our desperate need for a Savior fueled the faith it took to cry and reach out to an unseen God. Just like my baby Niomi who was born into a world she never knew and had no clue to what was ahead. She screamed out of a desperate need for help and only accepted it from what she considered familiar, and from the one which she believed could care for her best.
Our desperate need for Christ should not only start and end at the first encounter. I am convinced that being hungry and thirsty for God should be a normal posture we take on. That deep longing and need for Him fuels us to believe in Him above anything and all things. It keeps us reaching out to Him, trusting that He is the only One who can supply our needs, restore our souls, see us through, and defend and protect us like no other.
You call it desperate. I call it desperate, driven faith. Will you believe Him today the way you did the very first time?
I pray for a daily desperation that causes me to believe and trust You Lord for the rest of my life.
Sincerely,
Nona A. Phinn
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