As I'm reading through the beginning chapters of Brennan Manning's Memoir, " All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir"...my heart stops and my eyes fill for a moment.
Brennan Manning is talking about his mother - she says, "You don't alway get what you ask for." His mother grew up in an orphanage in Canada, after her parents passed away from a flu epedemic, when she was three-years-old. She lived in the orphanage until she was thirteen, when a man came to adopt her.
He says- " I've wondered if anyone was there to help a three-year-old grieve? Did anyone remember to celebrate her birthday? Did they even know her birthday? What about Christmas-was there gifts for her? Who were the adult females behind those walls and what kind of mothering impressions, if any, did they make on her?..."
He never asked his mother about her childhood - my heart breaks for his mother & all children who are forgotten. As I sit here. I wonder these same questions for our children.
I wonder...do we celebrate enough? Do they know that they are special, unique, cherished as individuals - not orphaned, not abandoned, not forgotten. Do they feel the depths of our love for them? Will they remember the way we care? Each life invested in. Sons & Daughters...Oh how I pray they feel like sons & daughters. Each one having a special place in our hearts...but even more importantly that they know they have a special place in Papa God's heart.
I pray that as they grow and have families of their own they will look back at their childhood and have fond memories- memories of being celebrated- that they will be able to love well because they have been loved well.
It's about being intentional and taking the time each day to create memories that will help shape their futures.