by By Tohru Inoue
“You shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you” Isaiah 66:12.
God sure knows how to speak… Her children were away a long time — no home cooking from mom in all that time. And after what seemed like an eternity, they’re home. Mother Jerusalem comforts her children after the long exile. There are no equivalents to the comfort of coming home to a mother.
I can’t remember actual occasions of being carried by my mother or bounced on her knee. It was so long ago. They’re ancient memories, maybe only subconscious at this point. It’s a figment of a memory, a suggestion from the recesses of my mind, but still the words tug at something deep.
When I was a child there wasn’t a problem mom couldn’t fix or a sock she couldn’t find. Whatever the issue, she had an otherworldly ability to comfort. She chased away the worry. As long as I was in her arms, nothing could go wrong. But mothers aren’t there forever. Some leave too soon. Some slip away slowly. Some are replaced by someone we hardly recognise after mental health swoops in and changes everything.
My own children are already too old for bouncing on the knees now. That season only lasted a few short years. Now it’s a rub of the back, a hug and a sympathetic word. It’s prayer with them when they are nervous or scared. It’s being there holding the disappointment after the losing game. It’s a bowl of ice cream when it’s called for, but it’s not bouncing on the knees anymore.My twelve-year-old remembers those days. I can’t, but it’s all there, in the soul. There are some things I can feel even if I can’t remember. Like it were a comfort that came from a different world.
I wonder if that’s what it’s like when this journey’s over — that day when all that’s broken is mended, all that’s unjust is made right. I’ll be wrapped in God’s arms and bound on his knees and find the comfort to be oddly familiar.
Maybe a mother’s lap really is from a different world.God must have designed it that way: that mothers could show us what heavenly comfort is like. Just a little bit of heaven on earth.
