My 6-year-old son still searches for me first thing when he wakes up each morning with a request for “a good morning hug and a kiss.” Although, since we got chickens, I’ve had to share that honor with his orange and black hen, Golden Midnight.
Whether from watching his older brother or from some inner instinct, my 3- year-old now does the same, slipping from bed — body still warm from sleep — to wrap his arms around me with a kiss.
“You pick me up,” he said, raising his arms to me early one day this past week, as I was getting ready.
After giving him a big squeeze, I tucked him in my bed. Wanting more time with me, he scooted over, pulled back the covers and patted the empty place beside him. “There is a spot for you right here,” he said.
As I paused from what I was doing to snuggle beside him, I recognized how like a child I need to be when it comes to spending time with God each morning. Since I work from home, my inclination when I wake up is to sit down at my desk and write while the house is still quiet and everyone is sleeping. Uninterrupted time is so hard to come by.
But so is uninterrupted time with God. And so I struggle, knowing how important it is to spend time each day in prayer, not only for myself, but for others.
“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray,” the James, the brother of Jesus, writes (James 5:13).
“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth,” says the Psalmist (Psalm 145:18).
And the apostle Paul urges, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phil. 4:6).
There is plenty in the news to be anxious about right now. Plenty of trouble. Plenty of cause to make our requests known to God. But to receive the comfort and care he offers, I must first become like a little child, eager to draw near to my heavenly father and snuggle beside him each morning, eager to raise my hands and request, “pick me up?” Eager to offer my adoration.
Our world is in trouble. Our country’s leadership is in trouble. The lives of our black brothers and sisters are in trouble. Our police are in trouble.
And so, before I begin my work each day, I mentally pat the empty space beside me. “There’s room for you,” my actions declare.
And I pray.
MEADOW RUE MERRILL writes and reflects on God’s presence in her ordinary life from a little house in the big woods of Midcoast Maine. Her memoir, “Redeeming Ruth,” releases in May
2017. Find her at meadowrue.com
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