We had violent thunderstorms last night, so when I woke early to a clear blue sky, I couldn’t resist sneaking out for a walk. Of course, I didn’t make it halfway down the stairs before a sleepy-eyed little boy caught me and begged to come along.
Really, who could say no to that smile?
I’ll confess, I was a tad begrudging about giving up my alone time, and I made sure I let God know about it. I’d intended to take a nice quiet prayer walk, to spend quality time with Him enjoying the freshness of His post-storm creation. Instead, out of love for my son, I would give up this rare chance for quiet communion and hope to carve out some for prayer and worship later in the day.
As we neared the end of our walk, I told Liam about his Nana’s tooth, which has been causing her pain this week. I told him the pain was really bad, bad enough to make Nana cry.
His precious face crumpled and his eyes filled with tears as he blurted out, “I don’t want Nana to be sad!”
I asked if he wanted to pray for her, and he immediately nodded and flung his arms around my waist. We stopped right there on the side of the road and prayed that God would give Nana relief from the pain, that her doctor would know what kind of medicine to give her and how to take care of the problem, and that she would rejoice that God had healed her.
When we finished, Liam wiped his face, smiled, and resumed walking.
“Now my tears are washing away,” he said happily, “because God is.”
I waited for more, but he left the sentence unfinished. “God is what, buddy?”
“God is washing my tears away. I can feel Him.”
Around the sudden catch in my throat I murmured, “That’s awesome,” but those words didn’t begin to capture the emotion his simple statement stirred in my heart.
Shame at my ignorance in thinking “alone” time was the only way to commune with God.
Gratitude that in His grace He showed up anyway.
Joy at my son’s pure, unhindered faith.
God is, he’d said. I could have let the conversation end there, and it would have been complete.
simply beautiful.