The natural desire of parents to provide a nurturing environment for their children's development is seen in the way a mother, with words of comfort and love, tenderly cradles an infant in her arms. But parents themselves can also feel the need of love and comfort—and of guidance, too—in nurturing their parenting abilities. How, they wonder, can they ensure the full development of their children's potential? How can they provide a caring and safe environment for their training, education, and health?
Increasingly today, many parents are turning to God for answers to these questions. And many are taking their children to Sunday School at their local church, so they can learn to trust God. The Sunday School where I teach has classes for children up to twenty years, including infants. The babies in Sunday School bring out the gentle nurturing affection of both teachers and pupils. And one particular Sunday gave me an unforgettable message of comfort.
The mother of baby twins was superintendent that day, and during the closing hymn was holding one of her babies in her arms, gently rocking her back and forth to the rhythm of the music. As I watched this sweet scene, the mother in me thought, "I remember holding my children and comforting them like that." And then, "Well, now that my children are grown, I still embrace them in my thoughts and rejoice over them with love." And then this thought: "God, the one Parent of us all, is doing this with all of us, His children, all the time. He cradles us in His love and rejoices over us with singing. We are all babes in the arms of divine Love."
