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by Patricia Swyers, Commissioner –
It was one of those all too rare Saturday mornings at home, and my husband and I were leisurely enjoying our coffee when the phone rang. It was our four-year-old granddaughter, Julia. She greeted me with, “Hi Grandma, where are you?” I answered that we were in California. She then said, “I want you to come here. I want you to come now!” I explained that it wasn’t possible to come now because we were far, far away. She was persistent and again said, “Grandma, I want you to come here. I want you to come now!” Once again I explained that as much as we would love to be with her, it just wasn’t possible for us to come. Her next response was: “Where’s Grandpa?” I gave the phone to him and she said: “Hi, Grandpa, where are you?” He told her and her reply to him was, “I want you to come here, I want you to come now.” After more conversation, we assured Julia that as soon as we could, we would “come” and be with her and with our other grandchildren. I still smile when I think of that conversation.
A young child calls and wants her grandparents to come and come now, but we can’t because we’re too far away.
How thankful I am that when I call to my heavenly Father, telling him that I need him to come, and please come now, his answer is quite different than ours was to Julia. He is never far away and is always available to “come” just when we need him the most. He sometimes comes to us in the quiet moments and surprises us with the joy of his presence.
In recent days we were having united devotions at the Pan-American Conference in Texas and were given a sheet of paper on which was listed a number of decades. In the background the song “He leadeth me” played softly, and we were asked to write ways in which we knew God had led us through each decade. There was no hesitation as I began to write. Decade after decade God had “come,” sometimes at my request, and other times just when he knew I needed him to come. He came to comfort, strengthen, help, guide, lead and heal, and that morning he came to bless.
David prayed: “Hear me O God when I call,” or in the words of a child, he might have been saying: “I want you to come, God; I want you to come now!” I’m glad that God understands our inmost thoughts and desires when we call to him. What is your heart’s cry today? My heart cries out again: “O come to my heart, Lord Jesus; there is room in my heart for thee!”
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