Soul Holes

Little Miss had unzipped her backpack to add one more thing for school the next day when the wailing began. “OH NO!! My bunny! His tail got caught in the zipper and now he has a big hole!” She held the hole-y bunny in one hand and the tail in the other as big tears dripped down her cheeks. The next day was “bring a stuffed animal to school” day and she had squeezed her pink bunny Pillow Pet into her backpack. It had barely fit, thus the tail got caught in the zipper and easily ripped off.

“It’s ok, honey. I can sew the tail back on.”
“But…(sniff)….I….(sniff)..wanted….(sniff)…take it to school tomorrow!! (Sniff sniff)”
“I promise you, I can have her stitched up in no time and she’ll be better than new. Go back to bed and she’ll be ready to go to school in the morning.”
“Are you sure?”
“Totally.”

She headed back up the stairs, shoulders slumped, and I grabbed a needle and thread. As I stitched up the hole in the bunny, I was thankful that this was a problem I could fix. Disaster averted. I know that won’t always be the case.

My heart tightens with boa-constrictor-like fear whenever I think about the holes that life will rip into her soul sooner or later. I wish I could prevent the pain. But then, God’s Spirit wraps His arms around me dispelling the fear, and prompting me to think differently. Parenting isn’t about preventing all the painful things of life. That’s impossible. What’s more important is that I teach my children to turn to the the One who willingly had holes ripped into His body so that He could heal all pain that life on this earth could ever bring. He was pierced for me. For my kids. For you. He was pierced so we could be whole.

I sit back on the couch, needle still in hand as I ponder that thought. I regularly remind the kids that they can pray in their head to God whenever they want to, wherever they are – when they wake up in the middle of the night scared from a bad dream, when they’re at school and they don’t know what to do in certain situations, when they are sick, when they are well, when someone hurts their feelings – in everything, they can ask Him for help. If we would all just remember that with every breath we take, He’s waiting – waiting for us to turn our thoughts and look at Him, to see the scars in His hands, in His side and ask for His help to heal the holes in our own soul.

As we move closer to Easter, may you see Jesus, the One who willingly endured the cross; may you see the scars from holes in His hands, the pierce in his side, and in those, may you find wholeness.

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The She Speaks conference is about women connecting the hearts of women to the heart of our Father God, something that I try to do here in my little space as well. There is a scholarship opportunity on the wonderful Ann Voskamp’s blog here. (A beautiful blog worth reading if you’ve never visited there!)