I'm back. It's been a long time since I wrote a blog. What may you ask, have I been doing all this time? My response, simply nesting. Just like birds, dogs and pregnant women, I've been nesting. I have been preparing a place for my growing family.
The announcement for the first addition, a new grandchild, began in January of 2011, when my married daughter and son-in-law surprised me and my husband with dinner and a cookie dessert that read, "Congratulations Grandma & Grandpa." I remember how utterly thrilled and surprised I was. In months that followed there were many nesting activities that included shopping for baby everything: clothes, furniture, toys, and even baby gadgets like video monitors. Also, baby showers and baby books updated me so I could create the most modern of nests. As part of the new nesting I was doing, I had to re-learn how to change a diaper (like riding a bike, one never forgets) and learn something called "swaddling." The only swaddling that I was familiar with prior to my granddaughter's birth was the verse from Luke 2:7 "And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn." All I could picture was baby Jesus wrapped up in what always looks like rolls of gauze without showing arms and legs. Well, I certainly discovered the benefits of swaddling, which is wrapping the baby with legs crossed and folded and arms at sides. According to some, this type of care is referred to as the "fourth trimester," or a way to re-create for the infant the confined quarters of mom's womb. Swaddling is suppose to make the baby feel safely secure for undisturbed sleeping. Yes, it does work and I did eventually get better at doing a crisp inside fold to make the swaddle tight. Swaddling...all part of nesting.
Perfectly swaddled or not, the joy that comes from holding, cuddling, and kissing my granddaughter is incomparable. Perhaps it comes closest to seeing a miracle unfold before your eyes. Yes, Miraculous, that is indeed the birth and life of every new child that comes into our world.
Ecclesiastes 11:5
Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother's womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.
Now, the other part of my nesting happened last Spring, when my younger daughter got engaged to another superior-son-in-law. It is just wonderful to be caught up in their love for each other, but weddings also require nesting, and some elaborate ones at that. From ceremonies, receptions, showers, dresses, tuxedos, invitations, flowers, decorations, programs, photographers, videogaphers, etc, etc. The wedding nest has a way of becoming very intricate even when the couples' taste is simple. It's just the natural order of wedding nesting, I guess.
However, the real foundation for the nest is always love, the kind of love mentioned by Paul in Corinthians 13.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. it always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres. It never fails.
It gives me great joy to see that kind of Corinthian love in my younger daughter and future son-in-law. I can't wait to see the completion of their wedding nest on their special day. It, too, will be one of God's miracles, the giving and receiving of love. One final thought. I once heard it said that a wedding is one of the few times when you get an opportunity to gather with all the people you love in one place.at one time. For me, that's the best definition of a love nest that's out there.
