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Writings by Barri Cae Mallin

Without

Tuesday 25 November 2003 - 13:25:09

The earliest childhood memory I have is at my first or second birthday party. We were at my grandmother's home, I recall sitting and looking at my kinfolk with tear-filled eyes, with the view of a candle burning through those teary eyes. Everyone had smiles, but I recall having sadness and fear! What was all this singing, and this fiery item in front of me?

I was a 50's baby, and back then, breast-feeding was not as popular as it is today. I know we were not breast-fed, so weaning was not even an issue for me. But glance into any baby magazine, and the subject is of prime importance.

Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.
Ps. 131:2

This verse has always been perplexing to me, since I was never weaned. I wondered if folks remembered when they were weaned. The word for wean in Hebrew is 'gamal' and it also has a meaning to reward, deal bountifully, to bestow, to make ripe.
Isaac was weaned (and there was a big party for him - Gen. 21:8);
Samuel was weaned (I Sam. 1:24) and
Genubath (I KIngs 11:20) and Loruhamah were too (Hosea 1:8).
Isn't it amazing too, that animals are weaned? This is an experience not for humans only.

There is an intimacy that is between mother and child through nursing. And most
likely, it is the mother who finds weaning most difficult, as it is she who must
break away from the intimate bond initially established between her and her child.

Weaning is for the benefit of the child. Weaning allows the child to go from milk, to meat.
Although the weaned child gets new nourishment, there will always be that lack of connection
ever again, between child and mother.

Yeshua in His infancy teaches us much about being weaned. In Luke 2:7, we read:
And she gave birth to her firstborn son;
and she wrapped Him in cloths,
and laid Him in a manger

Now I have never been a momma, but my guess is that when babies are first delivered, they
often are given to momma. Yet Yeshua was laid in a manger, a feeding trough.
Instead of being fed, He is laid in a place where animals feed.
He must have been there a while, because we read in Luke 2:12,
that the Angel told the shepherds that the baby will be lying in a manger. Luke 2:16 also tells us
that Yeshua was there in the manger when the shepheds came to Him.
We never read that He is in His mother's arms.
Already at birth, Yeshua learns to live without. Without comfort.
We are not told that He was at Mary's breast; He is laying in a manger.

Yet, we are shown through Yeshua, that even He as an infant had to live without.
Live without worldliness.
Live without some comforts.
Without.

Yeshua shows us that even at His birth, He had to live without.

Pehaps you find yourself this season without mother, without father,
without a brother or a sister,
without spouse,
or without a child.
Perhaps you are without home, or ample clothing;
without good health.
Maybe you are without employment, without family,
Without.

In that place of separation, in that place of learning to live without,
we have a comfort, we have a peace,
we have a Savior Who knows our sorrows, for He bore them Himself.
Beginning at birth.

He will see you through,

God's word here in Ps. 131
O LORD my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD
>From this time forth and forever.

Hope.
There is a hope that God gives us as we wait, as we live without
and wait.
The Psalmist tells us in verse 3, Ps. 131,
to put your hope in the LORD, now and always.
All creation waits
We must wait.
Hope that is seen is not hope, so we must wait,
with 'earthly eyes closed',
and spiritual eyes opened.
Trusting with expectation.

He will issue forth
a call to you to you, to
Arise, shine, for your Light has come
and the Glory of the LORD
has risen upon you!

Koo-mee or-ee kee vo-orech
Isa. 60:1

The LORD will accomplish what concerns you
Ps. 138:8

Writings by Barri Cae Mallin

Without

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