Being With You

As I closed the brightly colored picture book, my granddaughter looked at me with those big blue eyes. “Being with you is the best thing of all, Gran.”

“Better than jumping on the trampoline?” Yep!

“Better than ballet class or gymnastics?” Yes!

“Better than going to the beach?” Of course!

“Better than cake and ice cream?” For sure!

Ah! Can get any better than that? My little granddaughter loves being with me.

I recently had a Skype visit with my three granddaughters in South Africa. I told Reagan how sad I was that I wouldn’t be able to be with her at her birthday party. She thought for a moment and then, in all her near six-year-old wisdom, she said, “I know what we can do, Gran. After the party, I can Skype with you and I’ll tell you all about it. Then you can go to sleep and dream that you were here at my party with me, and then we can be together and you won’t feel so sad.”

Being. Just being. Just being together.

What a sweet gift it is to just be together! What a sweet gift we can give to others in this busy world.

Sometimes just being means sitting alone, quietly praying or thinking or dreaming. At other times, just being together means holding the hand of the one you love, resting in the knowledge that you are loved. Sometimes just being together means enjoying a rowdy Skype visit filled with little girl laughter and love and joy. Sometimes it means taking time to call your elderly mother to hear about her day. And sometimes it means resting in the healing process God has for you.

Our crazy world is so busy, busy, busy. It consumes our thoughts and actions far too much. We push ourselves to go a hundred miles an hour so that we can everything done, and we nearly crash and burn. Stress fills our lives and the beauty of just being gets lost in the shuffle.

So what will it take to change us? For me it’s taken thumb surgery and complications that have forced me slow down. And it’s taken a little girl to remind me to just be.

Johnny Diaz has a great song called, “Breathe” that has blessed me during this time. He suggests that we rest at God’s feet and take some time to fill our lives with the One who gave us breath in the first place. He implores us to “lay down what’s good and find what’s best.” What good counsel this is! I, for one, want to learn from it…and from the wisdom of a six-year-old.

How do you “just be”? I’d love to know!