M is my nine-year-old granddaughter. She and her 5-year-old brother have been with us for a week. Today they will be traveling home. M has been a bit clingy this morning. I think for several reasons – it has been a busy week-end and she is tired; her time here is coming to an end and there is a touch of boredom. I don’t mind the “clinginess.” I enjoy the extra hugs.
I suggested we go for a walk around the lake (there is a lake in our neighborhood that is about a mile in circumference). She liked the idea and was eager to go. When my wife heard we were going for a walk she offered to accompany us. M accepted it but was not as thrilled as I thought she might be. Then her younger brother wanted to go and the protest began. What began as alone time with her grandfather became a party with four people instead of two.
I enjoyed having all four of us walk together but I was also said because I knew the disappointment M felt. Through the years, I have been interrupted during my alone time with God – a question, a conversation, a comment – and the alone time is gone. It can be resumed or rescheduled but is not like walking back into that same moment.
M needed and wanted some alone time with her grandfather. It didn’t happen as she had planned and hoped. Even though we walked together and she took my hand, it wasn’t what she had in mind. I am not her father but there is a good image here. We all need alone time with our heavenly Father – time to just pour our hearts out to Him – telling him about about our day – the highs and the lows.
It is in the One-on-One time that I grow and have my thinking challenged and my heart warmed by His presence. I think I’ll go there later and spend some alone time.
