Touching Base

“For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.” (Job 22:26)

What fun we had yesterday with our granddaughter, Glory, and her little son, Ethan! She brought him over for a few hours and after lunch we took him to a nearby park to play. He will be one year old this month and is already walking. (If you think grandmothers brag, wait till you’re subjected to great-grandmothers!) As you would expect, his new skill has given him impetus to explore new places. At one point, we looked over to see that he had climbed up on one of those play structures that has the slides and a tunnel and was traveling, painstakingly, back and forth through the tunnel. During his wandering, however, he would intermittently toddle back over to his mother, put his hands on her knees, and look up into her face. I told Glory, “He just needs to know you’re still here.” He was touching base—his mother.

I do that, too—with my Heavenly Father. Sometimes, in my rush to see and do so much while I am still able, I toddle off in all directions, till I suddenly find myself farther away from my “Base” than I want or need to be. Oh, I know He’s always there, but I need to lift my His face to Him, as the verse in Job says. And what a relief it is just to touch Him and gaze into that beloved visage. You understand, of course, that I am speaking metaphorically. Still, the Spirit of God living within me provides a unique reality that those who only knew Him “after the flesh” (2 Cor.5:16) could never have.

As we walked them to her car, little Ethan laid his head contentedly on his mother’s bosom, and we all smiled, knowingly. He had played himself out; now he would sleep. And when you and I have played ourselves out in this wonderful, but tiring, and sometimes dangerous world, we will lay my heads on the bosom of our Father and fall asleep. And when we open our eyes, we will look around and find ourselves…Home.