The phone call

Saturday night SEC football in the Tennessee mountains! There was a tremendous crowd of devoted Gamecock and Volunteer fans. The excitement was palpable with both sides anticipating a win. This was going to be some night! Swarms of people from both sides were donned in their school's colors, myself included. The wind was crisp and it felt like fall had finally arrived. You could not have asked for a better evening! Great weather, great friends, great football!

My husband picked up his cell phone and started talking. I could only hear his side of the conversation. It went something like this "Yes, this is Chad's father. What happened?" An enormously long pause as he listened to the person on the other side of the phone line. "Yes, you have my permission to treat him." A second agonizing break while he listened. "Yes, you have my permission to stitch him up." All the while, my heart is racing and I am clamoring for the phone. I wanted to speak with someone and find out what had happened. My husband handed the phone to me as he tried to reassure me that it was OK. The phone lines faltered, the crowd was loud, and I heard only bits of the doctor's explanation. All I know is that Chad is going to be stitched up and I'm not there.

I wanted to hear Chad's voice.

I wanted him to hear mine.

I wanted to be with him. Instead I'm stuck five hours away in the middle of a crowd of 105,000 people who I no longer found interesting or fun. I just wanted to be with my boy. I wanted to hold his hand while he was getting stitches. I wanted to tell him he was going to be alright.

I wanted to comfort him, encourage him, give him my strength. But I couldn't even talk to him because we lost our cell phone connection.
I prayed.

A few hours later, a call came through from the doctor who stitched up Chad's arm . A backyard football injury, certainly not life threatening. He was ok. My boy was OK.

As we have been studying prayer this week, I couldn't help but be reminded of our Heavenly Father's desire to have an intimate relationship with us.
He wants to hear our voice.
He wants us to hear Him.
He wants to be with us.
He wants to comfort and encourage us and give us His strength.

Prayer so often is THE ANSWER, not just the way we seek or receive the answer. It is this gracious and amazing gift from a loving Father who wants to be in relationship with me, with you, with all of us.

Deuteronomy 4:7 "What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? "

Thank you my Father. O Lord, my God, thank you for drawing near to me. Thank you for wanting to.

Praise Him!