One Wish

I was once asked the question, "if you had one wish, would you ask for your hair back?" (being bald is part of Average Joe's charm, by the way) I was taken aback by the question and then answered this one-parter (pun intended), "Although I miss having hair, there are advantages to baldness. I don't need shampoo or a blow dryer and I can drive with the windows down on my car without ever messing up my scalp!"

However, there are times that I wish I had this kind of power. The power to be granted just one stark raving crazy wish. You know, to be able to get back something that you miss. To just wish for it and it would be so. There are many things that I miss.

I miss having a brother and playing basketball with him on those cold days when you can't feel your fingers. And the goal you're playing on has no net, so you have to take one another's word for whether the shot went in or not. Mine's been gone too long. . . I miss being able to run so fast that I could hear the wind whistle by my head. That was long, long ago and it seems the older I am the better I used to be . . . I miss eating chocolate gravy and biscuits at my mother's table on Sunday mornings. She still treats me to this delicacy from time to time, but it just ain't the same.

Compared to these, hair is pretty unimportant.

Honestly, I wouldn't waste my crazy one-time wish on any of the things mentioned above, though they are quite tempting. The reason? Because there is one thing that I miss more than any of these. To me, it's the only desire within me that is as powerful as the power to grant wishes.

Okay, so here it is . . . I wish I could rock my babies just one more time. I miss rocking them. You see, my children are nearly grown, they aren't babies anymore. Every now and then my daughter, who is almost twenty, still sits in my lap and lets me rock her. But as good as this is, it is not the same. I miss rocking them when they had nothing else to do, nowhere else to go, and could think of nothing that they would rather do than be in my arms.

My kids will continue to mature, Lord willing. That's as it should be. And as long as I have a lap, they will always have a place to sit. But I sure miss our intimate moments when they were first wrapped in a blanket and then wrapped again in my arms. . .

. . . I often wonder if God's most overwhelming desire is akin to my own. When He said "be still, and know that I am God," is He saying that he desires special moments when we aren't thinking of other places to be or other things we would rather be doing? In a hectic world where most folks ignore Him, does he look forward to the times when we totally focus on being in His presence? I think so...or at least that's what I want to believe.

Sometime today, I hope you'll make it a point to "be still" by being uninterrupted and wrapped in His presence. And I hope you experience a closeness with him that will leave no doubts that He is not only an all-powerful God, but He is a loving Daddy who cherishes His moments with you.