Sunday after church we stopped by the mall to eat lunch on the way home from church. You could tell those of us who had been at church; we were a bit more dressed up than those lugging shopping bags. We got our food and settled down at a table in the middle to eat. I love watching people eat. Not that I enjoy watching people eat, but I enjoy watching people in the process of eating. One family caught my eye. Grandpa was sitting with the baby and the older girls were flitting between grandma, the table and mom. I remember those years. The kids were usually so hungry they thought they would die (we still hear that today but no one has died yet), and if anyone is with me, I get the slowest food line and the cashier who can't take my order and then it's not what I ordered. Eating at the mall has it's advantages which is also the disadvantage; there are many places to choose from. We were only a 2 line family yesterday but there have been times when we are all in 5 different lines.
What caught my eye was the little girl sitting on the end of a table across from us. She had waited for Grandma to get the Subway order and then kept swinging her feet while Grandpa held the baby and looked around for Mom to get back from whatever line she had been They all sat looking at their food until everyone was sitting down and then they bowed their heads to pray. Now about this time, the rebel in me wants to stand up and yell, "Go Jesus", but the sensible part of my Norwegian blood just sat watching. What amused me was the little girls actions. She had her head bowed the entire time but her head was bobbing up and down and her hands, clasped together in the traditional Sunday School prayer format but they were going up and down opposite to her head. I watched as Grandpa prayed. The little girl never quit. I'm not sure if she is a constant motion kid; she didn't really seem like it before then because she was waiting so patiently. Perhaps she was just so excited that she could not keep still. Grandpa obviously didn't say a simple quick prayer. It was a bit more involved because I watched for about 30 seconds as she bobbed, nodded, bobbed, nodded, shook her hands, bobbed, nodded, etc. With the same motion she was bobbing and nodding as soon as the prayer was ended, the wrap came up into her hands and a big bite and the nodding and bobbing quit.
There is something about anticipation that makes us bob and nod. We used to stand by the kitchen door and watch when company was coming. More than a few times we have driven up to Aaron and Kristin's house in Peoria, and seen little faces pressed to the glass waiting for the family. When we know something is going to happen we anticipate excitement or perhaps fear.
Yesterday morning in church I invited the congregation to kneel and pray with me. I pulled the microphone off the stand, knelt by the piano and begin to pray. I wasn't watching but I didn't think a lot of people were bobbing and nodding and hopping around during prayer. Why not? Because we forget what it's like to let the thrill of excitement go through every vein in our body. Shouldn't we anticipate talking to the creator of the universe with excitement and fear? We should be chomping at the bit to tell him everything in our heart and give him our fears. We should be bopping our hands in excitement thinking we can hardly make it through praying to get a bite out of whatever he's laid in front of us as our blessing. We should be so excited to pray that we anticipate the moment that we simply say, "God, it's me and you won't believe what I've got to tell you." I'm not sure I anticipate prayer with that excitement. Sometimes I anticipate the answers to the prayers I am putting up to God. Often, I anticipate my reaction to the answers I think I'll get before I've even said "amen" but do I anticipate praying? Do I sit on the edge of my seat waiting to pray? Is talking to God so exciting that I am bobbing, nodding and shaking just because of the thrill that speaking to God is?
I watched until we were done eating. That little girl sat and ate every bit of her wrap. She seemed so content and happy with her tummy full and her grandma and grandpa there to share not only love but the moments of simply praying for a Subway lunch. It reminded me of how simple God wants the relationship with me to be and how complicated I often times make it become. Marette
