"It's Me Again"

(Another Jackson story, Jackson my grandson, that is).

After an overnight visit recently, I called our grandchildren Jackson (3) and Emma (2) to tell them we had enjoyed their time with us.

Emma's not yet much of a phone person (give her time!), but Jackson is quite the little conversationalist. We had a nice discussion, and then he let me know he needed to go (important 3 year old matters to address, no doubt). "Bye, Granddaddy." "Bye, Jackson."

About 5 minutes after hanging up, my phone rang. "It's me again" said the little voice on the other end of the line. Jackson had thought of something else to tell me, and it absolutely thrilled my heart that he called again. We talked for another minute or two, told each other "I love you," and I hung up knowing that God had touched my heart in a most special way. "It's me again." There was just something about those words, and then it hit me.

"The prayer of the upright is His delight" (Proverbs 15:8).

The believer's life is a continual saga of "It's me again, Lord," and God's response to us filled with far more delight than I experienced with Jackson. I am convinced we do not consider enough the joy our Heavenly Father finds in our communion with Him. We tend to focus on what prayer does for us rather than on what it does in Him. Since God is a being without need, and is perfectly fulfilled in His triune being, we may think that we bring little to the table of our relationship with Him.

Nothing could be further from the truth. God gave His Son to a cross of shame, agony, forsakenness, and death in order to secure a place in our hearts, and prayers from us that literally delight His heart. Hearing "It's me again" from my grandson formed a blessed memory that will be with me always. Hearing "It's me again, Lord" from His trusting children in Christ forms an even greater blessing in the heart of the Father who would say to all of us in this moment and forevermore...

"O My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice."

(Song of Solomon 2:14)

"The Lord taketh pleasure in His people."

(Psalm 149:4)