Seek and Ye Shall Find
This morning, I was forced abruptly out of a deep sleep by the series of beeps that our alarm system emits before it bellows full force and summons the authorities.
Without bothering to find my glasses, I stumbled out of bed and into our foyer to the blurry sight of our garage door agape, and just as the fog was lifting enough for my brain to enter panic mode, a little blonde head popped out of the darkness of the garage and scared me half to death. I scooped Luke up immediately, but it was a full fifteen minutes before my heart stopped racing.
"Mom, you're back! I was looking for you!" he said in a voice far too alert and cheerful for so early an hour (actually, it was already 7 - only it felt like 4 am). We had hired a babysitter last night, and both kids were in bed asleep by the time we got home, so I guess that upon waking this morning, Luke was eager to see if we had ever returned from our date.
At 7 am this morning, I was none too pleased by the rude awakening, but after a cup of coffee and a few more hours, I began to think differently about the situation. Our Sunday services this month are on the topic of Hell, and in today's sermon, our preacher reminded us of how important God's presence is in our lives - and that the essence of Hell is the absence of God. As I was pondering that concept, I thought of that sweet child of mine, waking up early and then running downstairs and out into the dark garage in his underwear, searching for me and for his daddy. It goes without saying that the look on his face when I appeared was one of pure joy. And maybe visible relief.
We are like that with God. We need our heavenly Father's presence just as dearly as a child needs his parents'. And when we realize that we have been out of His presence for any amount of time, we must eagerly seek Him. And He will hear us, and He will come find us - and scoop us into His arms.
Without bothering to find my glasses, I stumbled out of bed and into our foyer to the blurry sight of our garage door agape, and just as the fog was lifting enough for my brain to enter panic mode, a little blonde head popped out of the darkness of the garage and scared me half to death. I scooped Luke up immediately, but it was a full fifteen minutes before my heart stopped racing.
"Mom, you're back! I was looking for you!" he said in a voice far too alert and cheerful for so early an hour (actually, it was already 7 - only it felt like 4 am). We had hired a babysitter last night, and both kids were in bed asleep by the time we got home, so I guess that upon waking this morning, Luke was eager to see if we had ever returned from our date.
At 7 am this morning, I was none too pleased by the rude awakening, but after a cup of coffee and a few more hours, I began to think differently about the situation. Our Sunday services this month are on the topic of Hell, and in today's sermon, our preacher reminded us of how important God's presence is in our lives - and that the essence of Hell is the absence of God. As I was pondering that concept, I thought of that sweet child of mine, waking up early and then running downstairs and out into the dark garage in his underwear, searching for me and for his daddy. It goes without saying that the look on his face when I appeared was one of pure joy. And maybe visible relief.
We are like that with God. We need our heavenly Father's presence just as dearly as a child needs his parents'. And when we realize that we have been out of His presence for any amount of time, we must eagerly seek Him. And He will hear us, and He will come find us - and scoop us into His arms.
Girl, I feel you on the panic feeling. Last night we lost Stella at church (she was in the bathroom with Bethany) and while we were frantically looking for her, we lost Fisher (found him on the stairs going to the classrooms).
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