When I rocked Cheng-Yu to sleep tonight, he held tightly to his Little Engine That Could book in one hand and a toothbrush in the other. I can remember the first several months after we returned from Taiwan, he would play with my hair as I rocked him. As he got a little older, those little hands would scratch me on the back as he fell asleep. For about the last month, he has wanted to hold on to something as he goes to sleep. Typically, he will hold his toothbrush or a small tube of toothpaste. I usually hear the item of choice hit the floor as he drifts off to sleep, but there are times when he doesn't lose the grip even as he slumbers. This made me think about how God never loses his grip on our lives. We may drift away from Him, but He never lets us go. If we listen carefully enough, we can hear him in our daily lives. If we look with our hearts, we can see him in the smallest of things. If we are still, we can feel his loving grip. Within the first few moments that I held my son on the day we met him, he reached up with his precious little hand and touched my face as he looked me dead in the eyes. It was like he was saying..."Hello, Momma...I have been waiting for you." I was listening, looking and still...God WAS there.
