Mothers Group Reflection #5: "Who Do You Say That I Am?"

I will send a quick recap of our mothers retreat next week after I’ve had some time to digest it a little and write about it. As I wrote this particular reflection last week, I was thinking of our upcoming retreat. I don’t know about you, but life has been seriously busy lately. We are wrapping up soccer and baseball. One child is getting ready for her first school dance. We are trying to balance doctor appointments, errands, homework, school lunches and a flurry of unexpected things, besides the normal chaos of just trying to keep up with housework and meals. I keep looking at my calendar begging for mercy, but it just keeps coming...and coming...and coming. It’s mostly good stuff, don’t get me wrong, but I’m finding my soul a little parched in all the busyness. I find myself craving those quiet moments with the One who knows me best.

Someone close to me has been challenging my faith lately, too, and it has caused me to really dig deep into Scripture this month, when I can squeeze in a moment. I noticed in the Gospels that Jesus took time to draw away for prayer and that He would take the disciples with Him at times so they could rest, especially after a particularly trying time. It was at about this point that I looked at my calendar and remembered our upcoming retreat, the one I had felt was such a “luxury.” I took a deep breath and let go of a little of the mom guilt about using the morning for myself because I know if I don’t take time to fill up, I will have little if anything to give to others. One week to go. Three days and 12 hours to go. Two days, 6 hours, 23 minutes and 5 seconds to go….but who’s counting, right?

As I continued through the Gospels, I came across the scene where Jesus asked His disciples, “but who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29 NRSVCE) This question really stands out to me right now, and not just in the traditional sense of meditating on who Jesus is to me in my life. I had to send an email recently about a situation that was somewhat troubling to me and when I saw the response come in, I also noticed my heart rate go up along with it. I decided that instead of reading it right away, I would take a little time to soak in God’s Word and pray first, and I found myself asking those very words to Jesus Himself, “who do you say that I am?” I find that He is only too happy to answer this question in one way or another. When I took the time to fill up on His truth first, I found that it didn’t matter what was in that response because it was so small in the scheme of things and it didn’t define who I am. Only God can do that. He is the One who knew me first. He tells us in Psalm 139:13-16,

“For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.”

I don’t know the various reasons you came to the retreat or if you were even able to attend, but my prayer for all of us is that we will come away from this weekend rested and refreshed. That we will have a little more insight into who and Whose we are, being more deeply rooted in our Lord, and and that it will be a little easier to recognize that same image of God in all those we meet. I hope that we will be filled with the joy of Christ and be better prepared to share that with the world around us.

Thoughts for further reflection:

How can you become more deeply rooted in Christ in the week to come? Where can you carve out some time to reflect on who Jesus is and how He sees you? What keeps you from seeing His image within you?