A Mother's Ears

The other night I awoke at Midnight to a strange sound. I heard it right away, though it took me a few minutes to determine what it was.  It was the alarm clock in our basement guest bedroom - a floor and several closed doors away.  Yet despite it's distance from my bed, it's "beep, beep, beep" repetition blared through my miraculous ears.  I lie awake trying to decide if I should ignore it in the hopes that the problem would eventually fix itself and the buzzing would stop after a while, or if I had to save myself from the incessant noise before that happened.  (Guess which one won?)  So at 12:05am, I made the trip to the basement and fumbled through the dark to shut off the buzzer that my children apparently turned on unknowingly during their play time downstairs the evening before. 

A first for me, but in so many ways it is a common occurrence.  The strange sounds - or sometimes lack-of sounds - that wake me from even my deepest sleep on a regular basis.  In fact, the alarm clock was only the first of many wake-up's to follow that night.  But it didn't always used to be like this.  I could sleep through movies, siblings, alarms, meals, 14 hour plane rides and full bladders - you name it, if I was tired enough (or sometimes just lazy enough), I'd sleep right through it.  And then...I became a mom!

* * * * 

Now I can't seem to sleep through anything!  I hear and awake at every activity and need.  And like the alarm, there are times when I wait - sometimes from my bed, and many times from just outside their door - waiting close at hand, yet unseen, while trying to determine if I need to step in and tame the noise, or if they can figure out how to fix the problem themselves.  But even when I don't need to step in, I am still listening. 

Every door opening or closing - Mamma knows. 

Any slight whimper or cough or fall out of bed - there's Mamma. 

Every trip to the bathroom (over and over again) - Mamma sees.

Each cry for Mamma (or Dadda) - Mamma goes running. 

Secret sibling whispers - Mamma laughs too...errr, I mean Mamma hushes the silly crowd. 

A request for a nightlight - Mamma wakes to help. 

Every water cup being sipped - Mamma provides. 

"You will never sleep again," one mother friend told me when I was expecting Adrian.  And so many other moms, and what has become my nightly tradition, tell me that my hearing is warped forever - my ceaseless hearing.  That ability (or curse) to hear any and every thing, to be awake and attentive day and night (even to beeps and buzzes a floor and several doors away).  It seems, try as I may, my ears are always on.  

And as I lay wide awake trying to get back to sleep after my trip through those closed doors and stairway the other night, it occurred to me that perhaps this hearing is something I inherited.  But more than inheriting my maternal ears from my mother and the generations of women before her, I inherited them from the very first of all Mothers - God.

* * * * 

God hears everything.  She is always attentive to our activities and needs.  Perhaps at times our God waits close yet unseen, listening while pondering how long to let our cries for help continue before intervening, or waiting in hope and love for us to find the power within to fix it ourselves.  But no matter what, God doesn't stop listening.  

When the door of opportunity opens in our lives, and when it closes on us - God knows.

With every hurt, ache and ill - God is there.

Whether we journey into the unknown or find ourselves returning to a same stagnant place - God finds us. 

Whatever name we call out to Him by - God comes running.

With every moment of joy in our days - God shares the smile.

During every dark night of the soul - God lays in wait with us.  

All that we take in with every second of every day - God provides it and provides for it.  

"Pray without ceasing," Paul tells us in his first letter to the Thessalonians (5:17).  And as so many other scriptures, along with our tradition, tell us, God hears our prayers - our ceaseless prayers.  Day or night, and each hidden hour in between, there is God - awake and attentive.  God's ears are always on.     

Ask, and it will be given you.  (OK, just one more glass of water - then go to bed!)

Search, and you will find.  (I don't know where Beluga is - let's check under your covers.)

Knock, and the door will be opened for you.  (What are you doing in here? Thank you, but no more coming to give me hugs - stay in your room now!)

A mother hears.  A mother knows.  A mother is there.  Just another way in which this role with littles has helped me understand my Heavenly Parent better.  The miraculous gift of a Mother's ears.