But I Just Want You

I learn so much more from my kids than anyone else.  Like a couple of days ago when Nathan was growling his blessing to the point I almost didn't realize he was saying his blessing.  I told him he needed to pray so God could understand what he was saying and he quickly quipped, "God can understand me."  Of course he was right.  It was my grown-up self that was attempting to interfere in one of the truest conversations between a child and his God.  And a reminder that we all need to come to God as a little child without pretense or the delusion that God wants any more from us that what we are.  After all, it is the sacrifices of the heart that are most precious to God.

I received another reminder this evening at bedtime.   

When Nathan had been tucked in and we believed he was down for the night, David went back to the church to work on a few things.  A few minutes later, Nathan sauntered back to the living room and when I told him to go back to bed he said, "But I just want you mom."  How could I turn him down?  There was a time in the not-so-distant future when I wondered if I would ever here those words come out of his mouth.  In that moment, there is nothing that would have made me feel more loved than those simple words.

I wonder how often God longs to hear me say, "But I just want you."  I know it's way more than I actually say it; especially as I consider all the more trivial things on my own list of wants.  But I also think I'm learning how to love God more because being a parent teaches me about how God loves me.  His love for me never changes based on my actions of the day.  He loves me because I am His.  As much as I know God wants to hear me say that I just want Him, I know the reason He really wants to hear it is because He just wants me.