HOLD ME TIGHT

“Grandma, hold me a little longer, rock me a little more, tell me another story (you’ve only told me four!). Let me sleep on your shoulder, I love your happy smile. I’ll always love you, Grandma, so stay with me a while.” – Karen Tribett

You don’t have to ask me twice, sweet one. You need a little nap? You need a little rock-a-bye time? You got it—Nana’s all yours.

Ruth Hulbert Hamilton was the best advocate for sloth and procrastination (or perhaps more truthfully, for putting first things first) when she penned, “Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow. For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down, cobwebs, dust, go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.”

And that’s the truth. It seems my three babies were just babies. Now my baby has three babies and I can hardly call two of them that word anymore. Eleven years ago I was gleefully anticipating grandmotherhood for the first time and now that boy is anticipating middle school. His seven year old brother’s darling little boy looks are almost a thing of the past as he races along to keep up with his older sibling. I do fondly remember rocking both of them to sleep, eons ago, but memory fades and it’s hard to grasp a good hold of it.

That’s why, with this third doll-baby blessing, I’m trying to make a permanent indentation into my brain cells every time she falls asleep in my arms. I want to hold her with my skin, hold her with my feelings, hold her with my eyes. I want to memorize her soft breaths, the smell of her baby head. I want to hold her forever, even if it’s only in my heart. To her, her brothers and each of my own doll babies, I would have to say: you are pretty much my favorite of all time in the history of ever!

There’s another thing I try to remember whenever I get a chance to hold onto my grandgirl: God’s got a hold on me, too. He’s got me in a daddy embrace that’s tighter than my Nana-hold could ever be. He holds me in sad times, uncertain times, times of discomfort, times of pain. In joyful times, thrilling times, times of possibility, times of hope—He’s got me in a forever hold. Christ declared in John 10:28: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.”  When I asked Him to forgive my sins and He became my Savior, I became, so to speak, His favorite of all time in the history of ever.

Who’s got hold of you?