The milk of the Word

March 28, 2008

Today as I was rocking my newborn to sleep, she cried and fussed and was cranky…and for a while, although I knew she was hungry, she wouldn’t drink her milk.

I’ve been nursing little Zoe since day 1 and knew that she wasn’t having a latch-on problem, but just an inability to think clearly about taking the breast at the moment because she was so tired.

IN order to calm her down, I began to sing a little lullaby that popped into my head. Looking into her eyes as I rocked her in the glider, I sang:

“Go to sleep…I know you’re sleepy. Just have a little milk and go to sleep.”

Over and over again I sung this verse to her, and as I sang, the Lord reminded me of how that as Christians, newly born again in the Body of Christ, we start off with the “milk of God’s Word”. Paul talks about this in the Epistles. When we are baby Christians, we cannot yet digest the full course meat of the Word, but we can take the milk, and that is all the nourishment we need from day to day until we are older, just like the newborn baby.

But sometimes the trials of life get to us and we become miserable and cranky, sometimes depressed. We cry and become anxious. Our Heavenly Father then precedes to rock us in the glider of His Word and feed us the “milk of His Word”. As I sang the verses, “…just have a little milk and go to sleep”, I was reminded that our Heavenly Father wants us drink from His Word and rest.

When the trials of life become too much for us to bear, we can find rest in the Word of God. Our Father will feed us and rock us into a peaceful haven of safety and rest as we cast our anxieties on Him. He does care for us, you know!

So, if you are a newbie Christian, and even if you consider yourself an “old trooper” in the Kingdom…don’t ever forget that God’s loving arms are available for a warm embrace and the milk of His word is ready for the proper nourishment we need in those delicate times.