Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Psalm 22:9-10

I spent my early educational years as an average student. In fact, when I graduated from high school I had succeeded in achieving a perfect 2.0 grade point average (on a 0-4 grade scale). The one B I had received in my sophomore math class had been neutralized by the one D I had received in my Junior French class. So I managed to keep my perfectly average grade point average, which left me somewhat limited as to my college choices. It seems the Ivy League universities are not looking for average students, but exceptional students. My great claim to fame as a student was consistency. I was consistently average as a high school student. College was not much better in that I spent much of my time on academic probation. Having completed a great deal of formal education I have found that my desire to learn seems to have gotten greater with time. I enjoy sitting and reading books that enrich my life and cause me to understand more of the creation and the creator of all things. But, it wasn’t always this way and I’m grateful that the Lord of all life was educating me in spite of how slow I was to learn the lessons He had prepared for me. As I read the Bible, one of the things I take comfort in is God’s great patience with slow learners. The whole history of humanity seems to be filled with slow learners, to whom God shows great patience, grace and love as we are introduced and learn to live a life of faith.

Throughout the Bible one of the themes highlighted again and again is the theme of faith. For life to be full and rich for us as human beings it calls for a trust and reliance on His great power expressed in faithfulness and love. Over and over again the circumstances of life become the spiritual classroom of life in which the lessons of faith are learned. It seems that one of God’s chief intentions for humanity as we live in this age is to nurture and deepen our roots of faith in Him. Even the wonders of His great power displayed in all creation invite us to depend on something larger than ourselves as we journey through life. With each life situation we are potentially confronted with the crisis of need and how this crisis will be addressed. Those moments expose the nature of our faith. The object of our own faith comes into clearer focus as we navigate the difficult circumstances of our lives. In those moments we, in a sense, answer the question, “Upon whom or what do you depend to save you?” At any given moment the answer might be our money, our education, our talents, our position, our families, our friends, our religion, or just our own selves. But, what other alternative might there be?

I was enjoying Psalm 22 the other day and I was struck by the phrase “You made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.” It paints such a vivid picture of mother and child and the intimate relationship that is formed between them. As I reflected on this phrase I was struck by the fact that from the very beginnings of life God is forming the seeds of faith in humanity. It is a faith best described as dependence, learned at the breast of a nursing mother. In that place, the infant has no capacity to meet its own very real need for food. The child is a picture of helplessness and there is no shame in that characterization. It is the lesson of faith God begins to stir in His creatures from the age of infancy. It is an appropriate attachment for the time in question. It is a dependence deemed appropriate to the season. At some point a child learns to detach from dependence upon a mother’s breast and find a different way to satisfy the pangs of hunger. The child finds a different place of dependence through this weaning process.

I believe the point of life is not to finally gain independence from all attachments so that one is totally self-reliant. Instead, I believe we were created always to be dependent beings, drawing nourishment from the ultimate being of God. Too often, we grow up dependent upon people or things meant for a previous time or season. Weaned from one timely source of nourishment we now must find a new source of care and nourishment appropriate to the next stage of our maturity. Faith encourages attachment to God as what we ultimately and finally need. Faith leads us into the place of recognizing that nothing else in this world will eternally satisfy except God and the manifestation of His love and grace toward us.

It seems that even a mother’s breast, as tender an expression of love and nourishment as it is, was never intended to satisfy our need to trust and find help in the long term. The lessons of faith though began there as we learned to appropriately depend on someone other than ourselves. God gives us great surrogate sources of provision, not to replace Him as our ultimate desire, but to lead and point us to Him that our faith might be rooted in Him. Teresa of Avila described it this way, “I had to learn to seek the God of consolations and not the consolations of God.” Each day is a chance to remain in this school of faith where we are weaned from one source of God’s provision so that we might further seek Him the generous creator of all our provision. How are you doing at learning the lessons of faith God began long ago? From what might the Lord be intending to wean you from now, that your faith might be more nourished by His life and presence? From what might you have to detach to further experience the deepening of your faith in Him? May you experience the peace and contentment of a daily faith, more deeply dependent upon Him this day.