There is nothing better in life than hugging a kid. I love it. Mostly I love hugging my own kids, but I’ll hug any kid. Maybe it’s just the “mom” in me, but I love it. And when I hug, I want a hug back. Now I’m not talking about some weak-armed lean into you, wimpy hug. I want a proper two-arm wrapped around me squeezin’ hug back from you (ask my nephews) if I don’t get a proper hug back, I’m gonna wrap your arms around me and show you how to hug me back. (Eventually, after a time or two you’ll get what I’m looking for and cave in.)
I remember when our youngest, Jenessa, went off to Romania one summer in high school. She wanted to go far away from home and work at an orphanage for the summer. She picked Romania and went for 6 weeks. (I get wanting to get away from the parents when you’re in high school, but 5300 miles seemed a little extreme!) The first time she pitched this idea to my husband and I we both thought she was nuts. (We gave her all the reasons we thought it was nuts, too!) But we did a lot of research on the organization she was going with, we knew our daughter and we knew Gods arms were all over this world, so we said yes. This was not during the time of cell phones where its’ easy to just call her up when you missed her and Facetime her. Nope. She was with a large group of Christians and they got to call when they could but when they did have a phone to call out, everyone wanted it at the same time. Jenessa called about 4 times all summer. It was torture some days knowing there was nothing I could do but to trust that Jesus had our daughter and he would find someone with “mom arms” to hug her up in my absence. I remember every time I’d get super lonesome for Jenessa; I’d grab my oldest daughter Nikki or our son Dustin in the hallway and just hug them up. Eventually, they’d just roll their eyes and “take one for the team”. I remember once Jenessa called and said she’d been really sick. From her voice I could tell she wasn’t well. My heart ached to be there for her but that wasn’t possible. I prayed for God to send her a mom. A mom that would hug her and tell her she’d be o.k., that this would pass, that would show her love in my absence. She got those mom arms in Romania. She got hugged up by strangers with “mom arms”, got well and eventually got safely home. Whoever you were that wrapped your arms around my daughter…this mom says, “Thank you and God bless you.”
Thanksgiving was my moms’ holiday. She knew once we grew up and got married with families of our own that Christmas as not a holiday to mess with, so she snatched Thanksgiving. Every year all my siblings and their families were spent with mom around a table of way too much wonderful food, laughing and poking fun at each other. Every year as soon as the last of her kids and their families were in the house mom’s face just lit up. All her ducks were in the nest just how they should be. Her mom arms were EVERYWHERE in that house. You couldn’t escape them. Those are great memories. Moms been gone for several years now. I miss those “mom arms”. But I know God has given me friends and family that have great “mom arms”. Not quite as good as my own moms, but pretty darn close.
Who can you be “mom arms” to today? Living To Hear Six means that although you might not have kids, you might not be a “mom”, you might not even look like a mom. It’s important to wrap your arms around someone today. Encourage them. Remind someone how special they are to you. Gift them with a hug (even if they roll their eyes at you) and be a “mom” to someone.
