A Full Nest

Beloved:

Our nest is going to fill way up before it empties out again. Our oldest just moved home with her dog and cat.  Our middler will be home from the dorm in two weeks.  Come August all three will make their ways to Cincinnati, IU and Savannah. Rather than dread the autumn exodus I’m delighting in a long summer spent round the same table in the same house. I’m going to cook and cook and cook.  Which means I’m going to shop and shop and shop.  Which means my grocery bill will go up and up and up.  None of which worries me at all.  However, it does separate me from  most of the moms on the planet. 

Breast or bottle, feeding kids is a full time job from the moment they are born. Putting it in their mouths is the easy part.  Getting it home and into the cupboard is the hard part, the sometimes scary and humiliating part.   A woman came by the church recently believing we had a food pantry and needing things for her kids’ supper that night.  She passed at least five grocery stores on her way, none of which she could afford to enter. My heart hurt sending her somewhere else but she was gracious, cheerful and kind.  I thought, “I’m a shopper.  She’s a hunter-gatherer.  How dare I complain?”    

So prayers today for mamas and daddies everywhere; doing their best to feed the all little mouths and fill all the little bellies in their care.  May we be generous of spirit and of resource as we feed our own as well.

~ peace & prayers, pastor annette