Ya Rabbi, protect me…

It was a little past sunset. We were driving home from a long-day with our guests. Yasmin was sitting alone in the back seat, looking into the dark. She said with a calm voice: “Ya Rabbi, protect me…”

We try not to be out after dark. We do not make plans outside at night. Kids need to be snuggled in their bed when it is dark. They need to feel the safety of their home, knowing that their parents are in the next room and will hear if they call… We, the parents, felt we need the safety and peace of our home at night. We feel the need to take refuge in ‘our paradise’, safe and sound, away from all the non-sense of the outside world… Hence, it rubbed on our daughter. She prefers to be home after sunset.

When she is afraid of anything (thunder, dark, sleeping alone, etc.), we tell her one and only one thing: God protects you…

We never told her- don’t be afraid, mommy and daddy are here OR any other less-than true and less-than soothing comment. I cannot protect her. My husband cannot protect her. The lights being on cannot calm her heart. Anything else is deception. We would be decieving ourself and her if we said- I am here, no need to be afraid…

She is learning to trust God. She is learning that if God is with her, she does not need anyone or anything else. She is learning that God is the Rab (the care-taker, the loving educator…). I need God to protect me as much as she does. So when I tell her- don’t be afraid, God is with you, God protects you, that’s the only thing that calms my heart. I know that I cannot protect my child from anything. If a lightening were to strike, I cannot do anything. If an illness were to befall, I am impotent. All is in God’s hands, and God is the All-Merciful, All-Compassionate Creator of me and her…. and the lightening and the microbes…

It is the best feeling to observe that she has a loving, friendly, personal, intimate relationship with her Creator…

Ya Rabbi, protect us…