Jesus Is Always with Me

“Know any goats?” my husband called to me as I pulled up the drive after clothes shopping Saturday evening. “Cuz we’ve got one visiting!”

As I stepped out of the van, our surprise guest greeted me with a very loud blaaaat.

The thing about living in the country is that sometimes a frightened goat wanders into your yard.

And she definitely was very scared. It was snowing, too. My husband herded the poor thing into our garage. I have to say, his ease with this strange animal impressed me.

I am a city girl, and have no such easy rapport with farm animals.

My husband and I came inside, but soon heard unmistakable banging against the screen door. She was head butting the door.

“No, you are not coming in!” my husband announced. “So just quit it!”

The girls were in bed already. They would have been crazy with excitement to have a real, live goat in the garage, and probably would have begged for my husband to let it in the house. He went back out into the garage to stop the head butting as I called our farm family next door.

Our accidental visitor found what seemed a safe place. She curled up on the floor underneath a shelving unit, half hidden from view behind our Radio Flyer red wagon.

Soon enough our neighbor arrived, coaxed the terrified goat out of her hiding place, and loaded her into their SUV for the short drive back to her pen.

I imagine she slept well, back in familiar surroundings.

Unfortunately, not everyone is sleeping well at our house. My sweet middle child has been up at night, scared of skeletons and bees. (This was going on before Potty Boot Camp. By the way, we’ve had a few tough days with lots of clothing changes but now she seems back on track, I’m happy to report.) I can’t figure out where the skeleton fears came from. I’m pretty sure there are no Clifford or Daniel Tiger episodes featuring skeletons. And Halloween, when she might have seen skeletons in front yards or at the store, was many months ago.

As for the bee fear…well…we do have a lot of bees already this spring. The thing about living in the country is that there’s no shortage of bugs. My daughter has never been stung. However, it doesn’t help that in the opening scene of one of her favorite movies, Winnie the Pooh and his friends flee an angry swarm of bees after Pooh steals their honey. We made sure to remove that particular DVD from rotation.

My five year old often comforts her younger sister when she’s scared. “Jesus is always with you,” she reminds her. When I need to go into their room in the middle of the night, we say a prayer for all of us to remember that Jesus is with us and protecting us.

The other night, my five year old said after the prayer, “Mom, when you were praying for Peace (her nickname for her sister), were you praying for me, too? Because you don’t need to pray for me to remember that Jesus is with me. I already know that!”

“Well, maybe I was praying for Mommy to remember it.”

“Okay, well, you can pray for you, and for Peace, and for Daddy and for the whole world to remember it, but I always remember that Jesus is with me.”

She is far ahead of her mother. Truth be told, some of those nights when I hear my three year old cry out in fright, she doesn’t wake me…because I am already awake. I am lying in bed, stirred by some anxious dream, and unable to fall back asleep. Since I am a grown up, I call my fears “concerns”, and my sleeplessness just “part of the territory” as a mom.

The thing about being a mom is that there’s just so much to worry about.

I don’t have silly fears of skeletons, I have adult problems. The other night, I reflected on the concerns that have kept me up since I became a mom. Will we ever find a suitable house that we can afford?? Will these breastfeeding issues get resolved, and will my daughter get the nourishment she needs?? Will my child meet this milestone that it seems all her peers have met, or is something “wrong” with her??

And, the biggie, which still plagues me: “Will [insert horrible thing] happen to my children? To me??”

I picture God looking down at that list. He isn’t laughing because these fears seem small and ridiculous to him. He isn’t heaving a sigh and saying dismissively, “You create your own problems.” His brow is furrowed in concern…and His eyes both sad and filled with love.

He wonders that I still fear…reminding me how He himself has resolved my past worries. As just one example, he provided a better home for us than we could have imagined. We are set like precious stones in lovely surroundings, where the animals entertain us and the view amazes.

He turns my attention back to his promises, knowing that they have the power to cure my middle-of-the-night fear.

“Do not be afraid, for I am with you,” (Isaiah 43:5).

“Do not fear, for I myself will help you” (Isaiah 41:14).

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).

The other morning, my three year old toddled into the hall, clutching her Pooh and claiming there was a skeleton in her bedroom. However, she had slept peacefully through the night. “He can’t scared me again,” she explained. “Because Jesus is always with me.”

Our God cares about every animal in creation…even giving safe haven to a frightened goat on a snowy night. How much greater the love and protection he extends to those infinitely more important to him. He is with these little ones, and with their eager-to-teach, slow-to-learn mom. Always.