Years ago I posted on how mothers inherit traits from their children.
I’m finding yet another meaning to it now.
My daughter is off to college next week. First one leaving
the nest.
I’m thrilled for her. Starting a new life, getting to know
so many others, learning new things. It’s quite exciting.
And depressing…for me. And it hurts.
They say it’s normal for soon-to-be college students to
argue with their parents. They say it is part of process of distancing. We went
through it in June for sure. July came and we stopped. Somehow it just didn’t
fit who we were.
Instead, we decided to try as many different pizza places we
could before she left. We like pizza. And it’s been fun.
But that aching? Still hurts. Sometimes it even feels
physical.
And I wonder if that was God’s purpose in all this.
Dads have a special connection with their children. Dads are
the ones who most times get to say, “Go for it!” or “Get dirty!” or “Skin your
knee!”
Moms are usually holding their breath. They don’t want to
inhibit their children, so they are usually quietly saying, “Be careful.” and “Stay
close.”
Could that hesitation, that need to hold on, be those same
silly lymphocytes that our unborn babies sent to us so long ago? Those lymphocytes
that sent the message, “Don’t miscarry me, don’t let me go. I’m supposed to be
here.”
We know from the Italian doctor in that long ago post that
those lymphocytes contain the baby’s DNA and attach to the mother’s nervous
system for the rest of the mother’s life. Are they still saying, “Don’t let me
go?”
I don’t know, but I know it hurts. And I believe that will
be one of the questions I ask first when I get to see Him.
And who knows, perhaps He’ll be saying to me, “All this
time, I was saying the same thing to you…stay close.”
It would be just like Him to put me in my place.
