Running

This morning I was pulling out of the driveway heading to work. I had already gone through the morning ritual of kissing the kids (the ones that were awake, which would be my girls because my son was still sleeping as I left), kissing the wife, and giving Gabriel (the family Westi) a scratch between the ears. As I was rolling down the drivers side front window to get rid of the morning dew that had accumulated just enough to block the view, I noticed from the corner of my eye a red streak with a cotton top come flying out of the back door. When he hit the drive way he began to wave frantically with a look in his eyes of hope that I would turn around and give him a hug and not just wave goodbye.

Now, it is at this point that I have to be entirely honest. There are days, because of the bad attitude I can have from time to time, that I would have been so worried about being "on-time" that I would have just waved and felt that I had done my part as a father because I had acknowledge my son at all. Thank God (and I mean that literally) that this was not one of those days.

I stopped the car, reversed it just a little and pulled back into the driveway. With my window already being down, I looked at my son with a smile on my face and said, "I can't make it through my day without a Braden hug!!!" You would have thought that I had just given him the greatest gift that he had ever received. And as I think while I type these words, maybe I did. With a grin from ear to ear we embraced each other as only a child and parent can. He leaned a little and gave me an ever so soft kiss on the cheek (because he is 6 now and that kissing thing is beginning to be to much for him as a "big man") and sent my heart into the upper atmosphere. I asked him to be a good boy today and with a nod of the head the streak went back inside.

As I began to drive to work, the traffic did not seem as bad today. When people cut me off, and they always do, it did not seem to bother me as much. My son running out to catch me before I left today brought me to a different place. A place where the things that really matter in life were very clear.

I began to wonder, how does God feel when one of His children run as fast as they can to try to catch up with Him. Does the joy overflow in His heart when we embrace Him and then lean every so softly to give Him a kiss on the cheek. The beauty of this picture is that when we run out of the door to try to catch God, there will never be a chance that He will be in a bad mood and just wave a little wave as He drives away. We can, with confidence, know that every time our red (or whatever color we may be wearing at the time) streak comes flying out of the back door of our house we will always be met with an excitement and joy of a Father that truly loves us more than we could ever imagine. God will always change direction to come back. No, what we really find out is that He was already driving in our direction with a hope that we would come bolting from the door.

Oh God, thank you for today!