The Saddest Story I Ever Heard
Girl Days with a precocious five-year-old granddaughter. This particular day, from her safety seat in the back she noted it was important I keep both hands on the wheel. She commented on every building we passed as she accompanied me on errands, remembering with scary accuracy if and when she’d ever been there before.
“Hey, that’s where my brother Ben threw up on the waitress.”
“I remember that place. Daddy said we should stop and get gas and Mommy said no not that place the bathrooms are creepy and Daddy said okay and the next gas station was closed and so I wet my pants. That’s when I was just a little girl.”
“There’s where we got ice cream cones with M & M’s sprinkled on them but now they don’t have that anymore.”
After the errands subsided, we picked up lunch at a drive-thru and headed for one of my favorite parks in town. It has a beautiful beach area on a lovely pine-hemmed lake. Grace had never been there before. I took great joy in being able to surprise her.
I’d tucked beach towels and swimwear into my tote bag. She danced and bounced with gratitude for our impromptu picnic and swim time. What a glorious day!
“Grammie, did you and your grandmas have Girl Days when you were little?”
I told her no, we really didn’t. They both lived too far away, for one thing. And even though I knew they both loved me, they weren’t really “into” Girl Days.
She thought for a moment and then whispered, “That’s the saddest story I ever heard.”
I immediately started planning our next outing.
That's the kind of joy the Lord gets out of spending alone-time with us. A five-year-old can understand it. One-on-one—nothing better. He craves it like a child craves Girl Days.
How many times have I told Him, "Not today, Lord. Too many errands to run."?
I can hear Him ask, "Could I go with you? Maybe we'll find a place to stop and have lunch together, watch the waves lick the shore, sit in the too-hot sun, and praise the sweet breeze that makes it tolerable. Can I go along? Just the two of us?"
Am I going to turn down a request like that?
PRAYER: Lord God, I’m sorry for not taking advantage of every opportunity to be alone with You. I know how much it means to me. I forgot how much it means to You.
“In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore,” Psalm 16:11 KJV.
Today’s devotional is by Cynthia Ruchti, writer and producer of the radio ministry THE HEARTBEAT OF THE HOME and current president of American Christian Fiction Writers. Cynthia’s debut novel—They Almost Always Come Home—releases from Abingdon Press in Spring 2010. Cynthia writes stories of hope that glows in the dark. www.cynthiaruchti.com.
