My youngest grandchild, Jaxsen, is 8 and in second grade. The first couple of years of his life, he lived under my roof, and we are very close. I’m Pap. The last couple of years we’ve lived an hour apart and don’t see each other as much as we’d like. Last week, my daughter asked if I could come and take Jax to a school event. She needed to be at an event with my older grandson, Jericho. I said sure! Jax’s babysitter said that he was very excited that Pap was coming to take him to school.
The big second-grade event was about biomes. (Look it up … I had to!) All the second graders had been assigned various biomes. They had to build a model and write a booklet about their assigned biome. On the big night, the children’s models were all arranged in five second-grade classrooms. The instructions were to let your child tell you about his model and read his booklet to you. Then you could walk through the other classrooms and see all the projects. It was fun.
What struck me most about the evening was the several times during the evening when my active, busy Jax would look at me with adoring eyes and say, “I love you, Pap. I’m so glad we can be together tonight.” Melted this old preacher’s heart!
It made me think about how our Lord God desires to be with us. I’ve always been fascinated by the record in Genesis that says the Lord God would come and walk with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in “the cool of the day.” (See Genesis 3:8) Can you imagine? God desires that kind of intimate relationship with us, His children. Do you remember? Jesus told the woman at the well, “…a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” John 4:23 (NIV). And James, the brother of our Lord Jesus, promises, “Come near to God, and He will come near to you.” James 4:8 (NIV).
So why don’t we experience that intimate connection more? Life gets busy, and we get distracted by many things. I saw a bumper sticker that said, “If God seems distant, who do you think moved?” Indeed! In gathered worship, in personal prayer and devotions, in serving others in acts of ministry, in all these ways we draw near to God, and yes, He will draw near to us! Want to walk with God “in the cool of the day”? Take an evening prayer walk! He’ll meet you there! I like to say, “Get a little of God’s Word into you every day!” You’ll never be closer to the Lord than when you are in His Word. Draw near!
And maybe in those moments you’ll hear yourself say, “I love you Lord, I’m so glad we can be together!”
Larry M. Dentler, CBC Executive Board
