From the day that my husband and I began the long, painful journey of trying to conceive our first child, I had always dreamed of the moment when my kisses would be that magical healing balm to any boo-boo or hurt my preschool child brought to me. I couldn’t wait to whisper the words, “Do you want mommy to kiss it and make it all better?”
I equally anticipated when I could hear the tearful whisper and nod, “Yes!” Then I would kiss the offending ouchy and smile and whisper and say, “All better,” while my child said at the same time, “All better!” It was the one thing I desired to do. Strange, perhaps.
There is an innate sense in our mommy-DNA to want to protect our children from every possible thorny branch, bug bite, or worldly evil that is around him or her. And if the worst should happen, we want to be able to scoop them up in our arms and kiss it and just make it instantly all better. To take away all pain and hurt and just kiss away even the memory of it.
As I thought about this lately, it dawned on me how much our heavenly Father wants to do the same for me – kiss away the hurts and make all better the ouchies and boo-boos. He is always ready to kiss away my hurts and daily take my burdens from me, if I will but let Him have them. Daily, I can hear Him whisper, “All better…”
Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. -Psalm 68:19
“All better…”
Even more amazing is that He also already made all better any boo-boo I could ever make upon myself or anyone else. Boo-boos in the form of sin – when you just plain ‘ole mess up. Can you hear the whisper…there…in your heart?
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit… – 1 Peter 3:18
“All better…”
Just this past week, as our son’s speech has continually improved day by day, I started the kiss-and-make-better routine in the hopes that he would finally get it. I kissed an ouchy on his finger and said the magical words. He grinned that heart-melting grin and he had a twinkle in his eye that meant it was starting to click in that two-year-old brain. He came back a few minutes later…a new boo-boo…just to test the magic, I presume. I kissed his boo-boo, and this time he smiled and yelled, “All better!” My mommy-heart leaped into my throat.
Now, he comes running to me for each and every boo-boo that comes his way – holding out the specific body part and yelling, “Hurt! Hurt!” And, oh no, it can’t be a kiss from afar, nor kissing my hand then touching the boo-boo…the boo-boo has to be kissed. And then we each contort ourselves so I can kiss the hurt away with that mommy-magic, just to hear him run away laughing with the hurt remembered no more, “All better!”
Yup, sweet baby, its all better now. In more ways than you will ever know.
Father God, I praise You this evening for kissing all my hurts away, for daily bearing my burdens, and for taking the punishment my real-life boo-boos once and for all, to be remembered no more, when you bore the hurts yourself as you suffered and died on the cross. And now I rejoice, for I can now walk, no RUN, this journey with the peace and joy and laughter in my soul that yells, “All better now, LORD, all better!” The stone rolled away, You rose from your tomb, and you said to this child, “All better now, sweet child, all better!”
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 18:2-4
Amen.