We arrived at the promenade at Tide Point in Baltimore over an hour before the firework display was to amaze us with its beauty.  The skies looked dark and threatening as we arranged our six folding chairs into a clump.  Boats of all sizes peppered the harbor waters.  Colored lights ran the length of the decking with cold mist being sprayed up from them through the grates.  The kids immediately joined the other children present in running up and down the long grating letting the mist spray their legs as they sped by.  Within about 20 minutes they were soaked from at least the knees down but that didn’t seem to deter them.

As they played, I found myself, with heightened awareness of every danger in a two hundred yard radius, constantly instructing or cautioning them.  Several times I had to physically grab one of the smaller ones before they ran too close to the edge of the pier.  I called down the older two several times as they ventured too far from our chair clump, the younger two blindly following them.  Most of the time they heeded our warnings and pretty soon they caught on to the boundaries.  It was nice to see them obeying but I didn’t feel I could relax for even a moment.

After almost 45 minutes of non-stop running, my youngest tuckered out for a bit and came to sit down.  I discovered quickly that what she really wanted was a drink and a snack.   My husband kept his eye on the other three while I sat with her.  Then, just a couple of minutes later, our almost five year old came and sat with us also.  At this point the little one (who was put out by being told to wait on the drink and snack) wanted to go play again.  So, I made sure Erik knew she was in his scope now and I sat back down with Ann.  I reached out to her and she willingly took my hand.  Then suddenly out of the blue she looks at me and asks, “What would you like to talk about, Mom?”  I was taken back a bit.  I’m usually the one that asks such questions or sits and listens to them.  I cannot explain how warm, loved and important I felt in that moment.

I wonder if our Father is heaven is like that.  He’s watching over us, constantly instructing and protecting (even sometimes physically standing in our way).  We run about, oblivious to the dangers.  Maybe we even stay within His boundaries most of the time.  But I wonder how many times we choose to go and sit with Him…just to sit with Him.  How often do we seek His face to the point that we are asking Him what He wants to talk about?  No, I’d say most of the time we’re like my three-year old – we come over to Him for a drink or a snack…provision, but not intimate relationship.  We come to Him when we’re tired and spent.  Would it surprise God if we sat down and let Him talk for a change?  I dare say, for most of us, it would.

“The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.” Psalm 14:2 (kjv)