One of the most stressful things I have done as a newby Midwife was to help women, who’s baby’s were refusing to feed. The babies would work themselves up into a crying frenzy. There faces would be screwed up bawling, red with anger. It would seem as though their world was coming to an end. Their tummy was hungry ... but they did not realise that the way to stop this hunger, was to latch on and feed. And with all their screaming there seemed no way to convince them to do this. Having a cuddle or sucking on someones finger might soothe for a little while ... but then the discomfort of a hungry tummy, would result in more screaming!
One of the tricks to helping a newborn in this situation is to express a little milk and to place it on their lips ... to give them a taste. So many times, this is all they needed. Suddenly they would go quiet, nuzzle in, latch on and draw strongly on the milk they so desperately needed. It is so wonderful to see a baby ‘drunk’ and content, with a tummy full of milk. Two hours later, they are back asking for more ... now more familiar with the feeling in their tummy and what will satisfy it. Feeding round the clock, babies grow and thrive. Amazingly, milk is all a newborn needs to sustain them.
We all long for contentment and fulfillment. We desperately reach out to different things. We think if only I had ... a better job, lived somewhere else, had the perfect relationship, had children, had more money, had some chocolate in the cupboard ... I would feel happier, I would feel content, I would feel complete. We grasp at the things we think will fulfill us, and then are devastated when these things fail us. I am all too familiar with these feelings. We cry, we kick and scream, we feel bitter and angry. There is a gnawing hunger inside of us, that nothing seems to be able to satisfy.
In the Bible, Psalm 34:8 says ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.’ It is the Lord’s goodness that we need to taste. The taste of His goodness is so sweet, so wonderful ... it will stop us in our tracks. It speaks to our hungry heart’s about real nourishment- we can’t help but want to go back for more. His goodness is shown in his amazing love. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.’( John 3:16). Real life, real contentment, real fulfillment is found through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus says that everything we need to sustain us in life ... is found in Him, he describes himself as being ‘the bread of life’. He says in John 6:27, ‘Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.’
Once we have tasted and accepted the Lord’s goodness, found in the gift of His Son, the Bible says it is like being born again - ‘In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you ...’ (1 Peter 2:3-4). This new life has hope in something, in someone that will never fail us ... there is tremendous joy and peace in knowing and trusting in this truth. But it can’t stop there ... if we lose sight of God’s goodness, we fall back into the old way of life. Of trying to grasp at things ... that in the the end will fail ... and we will be back to feeling devastated. We are just like newborn babies, dependent upon it’s mother’s milk to grow and thrive in our new life. We need to be reminded again and again of the mercy and love found at the Cross ... and we need to grow up and learn how to live our new life in response to that. We need to walk daily, round the clock, with God- to talk with Him and to read His Word ... to understand more fully His character and to allow Him to work in our hearts, to help us grow in maturity. This is our ‘spiritual’ milk.
1 Peter 2:2 says, ‘Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.’
It would be wonderful to one day be able to sing this beautiful song of contentment with all of you, dear friends ...
'My heart is not proud, O Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.'
Psalm 131
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