A HUG
Hello Family!
I absolutely, positively love children. I can just sit and have conversations with them for hours. I often find myself paying basketball, jumping double-dutch, playing board games, hide and seek, have silly dance competitions or anything that will keep a child amused. To be honest, I am just a big kid at heart. The little girl in me is always looking for someone to play with. Lol. Children, are so smart and they often say the funniest things and I get so much joy just being around them. You see, I am blessed to be a part of a large family so I find myself constantly around the innocence, the laughter and the excitement of children. The truth is, I love children and they seem to love me.
Here lately I have been a bit overwhelmed. My mother hadn’t been feeling her best so I found myself taking trips back and forth to the hospital with her. I’ve been working my regular 9 to 5 job, while writing a new play and rehearsing for my current production. I have been rehearsing for hours upon hours. In addition, I have been spreading myself a bit thin trying to be present in my relationships making sure that the people that I love know that I am here for them. I squeeze in fun dates with my grandchildren and lunch and dinners with my sons. All while still trying to maintain some type of social life of my own. I was tired…no, I was exhausted. Every morning I would wake up create my “to do” list and focus more on what needed to get done rather than how I was feeling.
A few days ago, I found myself back in the emergency room with my mother. Once her physician gave the okay, I took my mom home and decided to stay with her until my siblings came over. My five year old nephew Keegan also came to my mother’s house. When he walked into the house he greeted everyone with a hug and a kiss and then he went into the other room to play with his cousins. The children were playing video games in one room and the adults were sitting and talking in the living room.
All of a sudden Keegan walked into the living room and headed straight for me. When he was closed enough, he reached out and gave me the biggest hug ever. He put both of his small arms around my neck, he rested his head on my shoulder and he hugged me for about 3 minutes. We stopped talking and just watched him hug me as tight as he possible could. So of course I hugged him back. Throughout the entire hug, he didn’t say anything…not one word. I remember saying to him, “Aww, auntie’s baby needs a hug” as I stroked his head gently. At the end of the third minute he released his hold on me and walked back into the room with his cousins and continued to play.
The following morning while exercising it came to me why Keegan gave me that unexpected but much needed hug. It was because God prompted him to do so. God knew that at that time, at that very moment I needed that hug. I wasn’t even aware how much I needed it but God knew. Family, I want you to be encouraged. No matter what you are going through, no matter what challenges you are facing know that God sees you, He knows what’s going on with you and He cares about you. God is mindful of you! While you may feel all alone, please know that you are not. The simple and sweet hug from my five year old nephew Keegan was as if God Himself had put both of His loving arms around me and hugged me until the tiredness went away…He hugged me until the worry left me…He hugged me until the fear of not being the best that I can be disappeared from my thoughts…He hugged me until I became reassured that God is in complete control of everything that relates to me. God used a child to give me what I didn’t even know that I needed at the time…a hug. It was through that hug that I gain new strength, encouragement and an overwhelming feeling of love.
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…” I John 3:1
