A different agenda

I have returned to Nightly Tea from a land where a successful day is declared when everyone sleeps through the night and the adults can get a shower.  What is "important" fades in the light of a baby's smile and laughter emerging from the basement.  It is a time when exhaustion is overruled by the cry of an infant.  And relationships are nurtured.

When our first grandchild was born and I held her for the very first time, I was struck by a overpowering responsibility.  The Bible speaks about the next generations and "those yet unborn."  This is it, I thought.  Everything I do, everything I pursue, my relationship with Christ -- all have a direct impact on this child.  And the reverberations extend to the furthest generation.

And so, this past week, I left Nightly Tea at home, and my husband and I loved on three of our grandkids for several precious days.  We sang and read Bible stories, frolicked in the snow, played restaurant and hospital, swords and knights, and raced little plastic cars.  The toys will soon be forgotten, but the TIME will not.

I wish I had realized that more when I was the mommy and the girls begged me to come play with them.  "Be there in a minute" became my first response, not as a promise but a way to put them off while other more "urgent" things swallowed up that time.  And more often than not, that "minute" meant not at all.  At the time, I would think how much I got done, but it was indeed my loss.

Singer Gloria Gaither once told a story about her young son who ran inside and called her to "come quick to see this."  She was up to her elbows washing dirty dishes. "Mom, mom, mom, mom, you are going to miss it!" he insisted.  With a great sense of irritation at her son, she followed him into the backyard.  And there before her was the most magnificent sunset.  In another minute, it was gone.  And had she hesitated even a moment, she would have missed not just the sunset, but the sheer joy of sharing that precious experience with her child.

And so, last week, I did not write.  I played.  And loved on those kids every which way I could.

We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD,
                 and His might,
and the wonders which He has wrought.
...to teach to their children
that the next generation might know them,
        the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children
so that
     they should set their hope in God...

                     Psalm 78. 4-7