On Babywearing and Corrie ten Boom

As a babywearing mom, I really appreciated coming across this little gem during my devotional time this morning. I've been reading Corrie ten Boom's book Tramp for the Lord which she wrote about her life & travels and her relationship with the Lord. In a chapter entitled, "A Place to Be, " she is telling the reader about how the Lord has a place just for us.

"I was born prematurely and my skin was blue. Uncle Hendrik, Tante Jan's husband, looked at me and exclaimed, 'I hope the Lord will quickly take this little creature to His home  in Heaven.'...But my parents surrounded me with love and care. However, since there were no incubators in those early days, I cried much from the cold. Tante Anna, knowing I missed the warmth of the special place under my mother's heart from which I had come, rolled me in her apron and tied me against her stomach. There I was warm and quiet."

"Many years later I was in a primitive house in Africa...Walking into the kitchen, I saw an African woman with the white missionary child strapped tightly to her back....'Hey, how nice she has your baby on her back,' I said to the missionary mother....The white mother smiled and said, 'The baby was so fearful this morning. All she would do was cry. When the African cook came to the house she took one look at the baby, and said, "'Ah, misseee, give me the baby. I will keep her quiet." So she strapped her on her back and the baby has slept all morning while the cook has been busy around the kitchen.'"

...."In all these years that I have been a 'tramp for the Lord,' I have often been afraid. But, in those moments I have always reached up and touched the hem of Jesus' garment. He has never failed to wrap me close to Him. Yet, I still long for that time when I shall have a mansion in Heaven."

Babywearing parents might giggle a little about the apron. Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch woman born in 1892 at a time when babywearing was at low point--it just wasn't done much in Western culture. I'm certain that she must have seen many mothers wearing their babies throughout her travels all over the world. And I'm certainly glad that babywearing is "in vogue" again in the U.S.

What a wonderful picture of our Father God.

Parents who wear their babies regularly know how soothing it is for the child. Wearing a newborn on your chest has been shown to regulate a baby's heartbeat and temperature. Babies who are worn by their parents...they simply cry less! And I believe with all my heart that Jesus has a place just like that for us. We can place ourselves tightly against the very heart of God--a place we can go to whenever we call upon him in prayer--and he will calm us.

P.S. I highly recommend Tramp for the Lord by Corrie ten Boom.