Be still

This morning in church our pastor preached on some verses from Psalm 46, the most familiar of which says, "Be still and know that I am God."  I have thought and prayed over and sang these words many times, but today it reminded me of the words of Moses when the Israelites were about to leave Egypt and cross the Red Sea.  They were understandably terrified when facing a great unknown but Moses says, "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

This afternoon I woke Baby P up from his nap, knowing that he usually takes a couple minutes to fully awaken when I wake him up.  I brought him out on our front porch to watch and listen and even feel a huge downpour that was covering our house.  He leaned against my chest, completely still, for several minutes.  This was a precious moment of peace, as normally during his waking hours he twirls and swirls around like a tornado.  As we sat there taking the storm in, I thought how grateful I was for his stillness, and then I remembered the sermon, and was grateful for our stillness.

Our little family is moving.  We are packing up our belongings and selling our house and going somewhere hours away to build a new life.  It's been a long time coming but now the time is finally here.  And of course real life doesn't stop.  So I have been feeling pretty much the opposite of still lately.  I have ten to fifteen minutes every morning before the boys wake up to pray, and I'm so grateful that those small times are sustaining me.  There is much work to be done and hours to go before I sleep but for today, I'm grateful that I could be still.