I spent about an hour today visiting with a sweet mom who is navigating the emotional time of watching her young-adult son leave home to pursue his calling. It brought back so many memories of watching each of our four children leave home to build their own homes. Weeks before the time would come to say good-bye, I would lie in bed at night sobbing. Letting go of the child that you have cared for day after day and night after night is not an easy thing. It’s nothing new…moms (and dads) have faced it for generations. But, when it’s YOU, there is no escaping the ache.

As we talked today, I mentioned how we as mothers “hover” over our children…doing everything in our power to keep them safe, healthy, well-fed, surrounded by good friends—all the things good mothers do. When the time comes for them to leave our care, our mind races with thoughts like, “Who’s going to take care of him? Who’s going to protect him? What’s going to happen if I’m not there?”

As I prayed for my friend, I prayed that though the geographical miles between them would preclude her from watching over her son, that she would have a sense of the Father God hovering over him. At that moment, we both had a mental/spiritual picture of the Holy Spirit of God hovering over her son.

Genesis 1:1-2,”In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters…” hovering over to both protect and participate in the creation (Ryrie).

Picture the Living God hovering over those you love…protecting them and participating in their lives.

Deut 32:10-11 “He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. The LORD alone led him…”