The Connor Connection

The five of us were seated around my kitchen table, chatting easily, baby Connor placed on the edge where he sat in the protective curve of grandpa “Poppy”'s arms. Silently he surveyed the adults before him as the conversation flowed around him, studying each face with the pensive look on his own that we've come to know as “seriously Connor.” His daddy, Gabe, had been telling the group about the moment each day when he stops at the babysitter's house to pick up his boy; that instant when Connor first sees him, recognizes him, and then smiles so huge, arms flailing, body wiggling with delight at the sight of his dad. At that moment Gabe said his heart just explodes within him with love for his child; there is absolutely nothing that can be compared to the experience.

Minutes later I saw it for myself on a small scale, when Poppy passed the baby over to Gabe for some reason. Connor looked up to see who he was being handed to, saw that it was Daddy, and began to smile and rejoice, the details of which were lost to me because his back was turned my way. But facing Gabe gave me a clear view of him in that moment of connection with his child; his joy evident in the ensuing smiles, funny faces and baby babble between them, oblivious as they were to the conversation continuing around them.

How funny that we had been talking about knowing God...when God Himself suddenly entered the conversation with a picture instead of words. He showed us that knowing Him is more than just seeing what He has made, reading about Him in His Word, or living the life He has given us, acknowledging in the back of our minds somewhere that He created it all and is our Father and our Savior. Rather, it is those moments of recognition in the midst of our circumstances; those times when something in a situation unexpectedly clicks in our spirit, and suddenly we see His Face or hear His voice and laugh in the knowledge that that particular detail was deliberately planted to be discovered and enchant us by the Father who dotes on us. That moment which brings us such joy brings even more of the same to Him. In that instant with Gabe and his son, God showed me a fraction of the single-mindedness of the connection and the love burst of joy that exists between a Father and His child. It was for this that we were created; for fellowship with the Father... to gladden the heart of our God.

And so Father's Day approaches and we are busy looking for ideas with which to celebrate the dads in our lives, be they our own fathers, our husbands, our sons, or just a friend with a child. Maybe we should also add God to the list. Our Heavenly Father is actually the easiest to please, as the entire world around us is loaded with gift ideas... if we only had eyes to see and recognize Him in them. I frequently ask the Holy Spirit for help in finding gifts for others; how much more should I ask Him to help me to find God in the details of my life, that I might delight His heart once more?

Such a request requires a lifetime, rather than a few moments of shopping on a computer or an hour in a store. So I guess what we give God is our time... time to develop a heart that can't bear to beat apart from Him, eyes that look for His in everything around them, and a mind set on continual connection with the One who loves us best.

One day Baby Connor will be grown and gone, but his dad will still long for their initial bond to stay strong. And no matter how long we have walked with God, how spiritually mature we have become nor how busy we are with ministry for His glory, He still glories in those moments when we return to our youth and simply delight at the sight of His face.

“But Jesus called the children to him and said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.'”

(Luke 18:16-17 NIV)

Conversation Connector

“Remind me to do that,” my husband requests.

“No problem!” is my standard reply. “I've got an app for that.” And then I add his request to the multi-page list, grateful that my phone's memory is so much better than mine. We use that app for everything in our lives these days, from telling us where we need to go and when, to what to bring, to even what we wanted to say to each other along the way!

If my phone is my memory in the physical realm, it's the Holy Spirit's job in the spiritual world to bring back to my remembrance all the things I tend to forget. Some items on the list are indeed things God wants me to do, places He wants me to go, and words He wants me to speak. But mostly the Holy Spirit's job is to remind me of what God has already done. Psalm 103:2 tells us to “forget not all His benefits.” And then it lists just a few of them...forgiveness, healing, redemption, compassion, provision, justice...in a list even longer than the one on my phone.

The list of what God has done for mankind as a whole is enough to inspire an outpouring of praise. But it's the things He's done for me personally that pull at my heart and draw me into a closer embrace with my Creator. Answers to prayers that only His ears have heard, desires of my heart still unspoken yet granted, jokes we've shared, and experiences we've been through together...these are the moments that make up a loving relationship with God. And yet it seems that they are unintentionally dismissed from our memory almost as quickly as they happen. We need that Holy Spirit nudge to suddenly see God's face turned our way, His eyes meeting ours as He says, “I remember the conversation we had about that – do you?”

We tend to forget that there is another Kingdom in operation in our lives. So much of God's goodness and His many answers to our prayers – the evidence of His care - we attribute to mere coincidence, and in doing so we lose more than just an opportunity to give God the glory and praise He deserves. We steal from that moment its power to transform our lives with the acute awareness of God's love.

Recently I saw a video of two little kids who apparently had long begged their parents for a dog. One day as they worked together on their homework at the kitchen table, their father walked through the room, setting a box down on the floor beside the table in passing. The kids continued talking and working without noticing that a puppy was peeking up at them over the edge of the box. Suddenly the little girl caught a glimpse of it. She froze and stared at the dog for the longest time as she tried to process what she was seeing. Then she turned to her father and said, “Is that for us? You bought us a dog? It's really for us?” Surprisingly, she then covered her face with her hands and broke out in tears. She didn't initially go near the dog, instead she simply stood there crying, repeatedly lifting her face from her hands to choke out the words, “Thank you! Thank you so much!” Even when she was seated on the floor with her brother, the puppy between them, as she reached out to touch it for the first time, she stopped and was overwhelmed again, her heart and eyes overflowing with grateful tears. Clearly the moment wasn't about a puppy at that point; she was simply overwhelmed by her father's love.

I want to be that girl. And so I look to the Holy Spirit for help in transforming me from my thoughtless and greedy self into the thankful and grateful girl I long to be. “Remind me!,” I plead, and He does so, over and over again through the course of the day, that God is thinking about me, loving me, and blessing me in more ways than I ever thought possible.

The girl in the video had yet to even pet the answer to her prayers when her dad came over and enveloped her in a loving hug, so touched was he by her response to his gift. Maybe God has the Holy Spirit connect the gifts He gives us with our past conversations, not so much because that remembrance brings us joy...but because of the joy those connections bring to Him.

“But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them...”

(John 16:4 NKJV)