Be still! Quit squirming! I can’t concentrate! I’m going to mess up if you don’t be still! I can’t hear! I can’t see! Be quiet!
These are the words I heard over and over today.
Ahh, it’s summertime, kids are out of school and Nana is on full-time duty! What to do with 2 little grand-girls all day long? As would be expected, we swim a lot. But in the hottest part of the day, the air conditioned indoors is the place to be! On this particular afternoon, we decide on a movie and polishing the nails.
As I settle in the bed with a grand-girl on each side, “Ice Age” on play, it is not the voices of Sid, Diego and Buck I hear. As I try to calmly and rationally quiet the girls from their little squirmishes, I am taken aback 40 years earlier as I lay next to my grandmother. I could never be still enough for grandma. “Be still, stop that, quit squirming!”
Fast forward to present tense, the movie is past and it is time to find another activity. What little girl doesn’t enjoy getting her nails polished? We have an entire routine that consists of picking just the right color/s, trimming, filing, painting and drying. Today we have decided on a rainbow of colors! How exciting!
And here we go again… “Be still. Quit squirming! I’m going to mess up if you don’t be still!” And then it hit me as I heard myself repeating those same words said to me so many years before. I think, no, I know God is speaking to me and His words are now, finally, loud and clear. “Be still, quit squirming!”
One of my favorite Bible passages comes from the book of Mark when Jesus and the disciples get in the boat and a storm surges. Waves crashing in upon them, the boat being tossed about like crazy yet Jesus is still as he sleeps peacefully amongst the chaos and impending doom. The disciples are all in a tizzy, squirming about, worried, frightened. Can you hear it? All the noise? Can you see it in your life? I can in mine. I know you are familiar with the crashing waves of life, the feeling of impending doom. We won’t escape times of chaos. We can escape the noise that always follows by keeping our eyes on Jesus.
Are you familiar with the song, “Be Still My Soul?”
Be still my soul – the Lord is on thy side;
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
leave to thy God to order and provide;
in every change – he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul – thy best thy heavenly Friend
through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
I believe my story of a summer day at Nana’s can end here without further explanation. But not without the words of one little girl who, after being still, nails shining all a new with fresh polish, exclaims excitingly, “WOW! Awesome Nana!
“Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10
“WOW! Awesome God!”
