The act of swaddling

It has been almost a year since my pseudo-niece Emma was born. I remember visiting her in the hospital and Anne telling me that Paul had mastered the art of swaddling emma tightly in her blanket. I remember thinking that being swaddled tightly in a blanket did not seem really appealing to me, I would feel far too cloistered.

Last night I was transported back to that day in the hospital. I was at church and we sang, "Arms of Love". A song that I have sang so many times, a song that we don't usually sing at Bluer, but a song that suddenly impacted me greatly. I was singing the part of the chorus that says, "In your arms of love, holding me still, holding me near" when it suddenly made sense why Emma would like the feeling of being swaddled by her father.

In my child development class we talked about how babies can easily get overwhelmed by what is going on in the environment around. And since they do not have the ability to look away, or to remove themselves from the distraction one way in which a parent can help sooth them is to swaddle them in a blanket, or to hold them closely to themselves so that the child can feel their limbs close to their body. This act of being held tightly soothes the child and they are able to relax.

Like babies, I sometimes find myself so overwhelmed by what is going on in my environment. My attention is split between a myriad of things. I find myself getting stressed as I am distracted by both positive and negative events in my life..school, financial issues, car issues, obligations, social activities. I am literally in sensory overload, however unlike Emma there are times when I don't let my father swaddle me. He is there ready to "hold me still, and hold me near" so that all the distractions can be whisked away as I rest in his arms and allow Him to be my refuge.
Thankfully, I can change that at any time. My father is there ready to swaddle me, and ready to let me rest in his arms of love.