faith unfaded

I’ve always loved the Dr. Seuss children’s book Are You My Mother?

Always.

Even now — full-grown, allegedly mature, and wearing my “I promise I’m an adult” tee — if I see a construction crane tucked up high in a tree line, I immediately ask:

“Are you a Snort?”

Not out loud…

because that would be weird.

But it still happens every single time. There’s something about that wandering baby bird that stuck with me long before I realized how much I’d grow up to resemble him.

Today I was reading Proverbs 27 — one of my favorite daily practices is to read the chapter in Proverbs that correlates with the date — and I stumbled on a verse I’ve read a hundred times, but hit differently today:

“As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.”(Proverbs 27:8)

And immediately, my mind went right back to that little bird stepping out into the world, asking everything it encountered — cows, hens, dogs, steam shovels — the same desperate question:

“Are YOU my mother?”

Isn’t that us sometimes?!

We wander away from the place God has called us, the place He’s anchored us, the place He’s told us to stay and grow — and then we start interrogating everything in sight:

“Are you my peace?”

“Are you my worth?”

“Are you my fulfillment?”

“Are you the thing that will fix this?”

We ask people to be what they were never designed to be.

We ask relationships to hold weight they cannot carry.

We ask work, busyness, applause, shopping, scrolling, food, escape, hustle, or achievement to mother our souls — to give us identity, rest, comfort, validation.

But none of those things can.

Just like the little bird, we end up standing in front of emotional bulldozers asking,

“Are you my mother?”

and wondering why we stay tired, empty, or misplaced.

But here’s the grace in it:

God doesn’t shame the wandering bird.

He doesn’t scold the one who looked in all the wrong places.

He doesn’t say, “You should’ve known better.”

He simply waits — patiently, faithfully — for the moment we look up and recognize His voice.

Because the nest isn’t a location.

It’s Him.

Every time we wander, He gathers.

Every time we get confused, He clarifies.

Every time we reach for a “Snort,” He redirects us to safety.

And ultimately, He reminds us of what the little bird finally discovered:

Your true home has always been with the One who made you.