From The Edge Of The Bed

The edge of the bed. Any mother has been there.

Mothers kneel down to pray there after long days.
They silently watch their children as their chest rises and falls when they have a fever.
Mothers sit there to rub backs and bring water and dream and hope.

The edge of the bed is where we can sit and see our baby—lay hands on our baby—even if we can’t fix what is causing them pain.

During my time in Liberia I would watch mothers sitting on their child’s hospital beds. Some of them watching their babies as they slept, some of them with pain written all over their face as their child screamed while the nurse placed an IV. Mothers will sit there to feed milk to their baby, spoonful after spoonful, carefully wiping it off their chins when it drips.

The beautiful thing about this work is that a mother is a mother anywhere on the globe. Our circumstances may look different, but the love for our children is universal.
May we remember the mothers at the edge of the bed on this special day. They are lights that never go out–always watching, always holding, always hoping.

And most of all, may we remember who sits on the edge of the bed with us. Just as the mothers are always there, always attentive, I believe that God is there on the opposite edge—right next to His children in the pain and in the healing. If I had to guess–He wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than beside us, with us.

The edge of the bed: a place where mothers pray and plea, a place where children heal, and a place where God meets us in every circumstance. Holy ground indeed. 

-Haley Minesinger | Better Together, Director of Ambassadors