30th August

Now then, who’s a bad grand-dad? I was supposed to be child-minding today and had the misfortune to fail miserably by making the number one mistake, to be avoided at all costs… I lost my 9 year old grand-daughter! So there we were, less than 5 minutes into our shopping trip inside Sainsbury’s and already I was scooting along, wondering how quickly I could escape the place by throwing as many items on my list as fast as possible into my trolley. Suddenly my son appeared and noticed that said grand-child was missing… her older sister was with us tagging along as expected but no sign whatsoever of the youngster in either our aisle or the next one. So I left my son to search the shop whilst I nipped to the exit just a few yards away… just to make sure, and I did feel a little over-panicky when I realised I was scouring the car-park for any sign of a young girl being dragged kicking and screaming into a strangers car! Then I thought of phoning her mobile, but suddenly they all appeared. The rather tearful young lady was found by the cake counter, where else would she be? But she really wanted her mum for a hug not me or her uncle or even her sister. And a phone call to mum at work would not be enough… ah well these things come to try us. It helped when I told the story of her currently 6 feet 5 inch uncle once being left behind as a young 10 year old. We went to church for the normal Sunday morning and afterwards got all the way home before somebody realised we’d clean forgotten him! But then I had 3 daughters and a wife to share the guilt trip with me. So anyway, the always a favourite, home-made chips and Jaffa cakes for lunch sorted her out and we’re still the best of friends.

So is it possible for God to forget about us? Or is he quite simply a perfect Father in heaven? Sometimes I have to admit he does seem to be a rather remote figure, but over the years I’ve come to realise that that is absolutely always down to me and where I’m at. There have certainly been a number of times in the past when I didn’t really want to be too close to the Lord because that would have meant dealing with particular things that were not quite right in my life. And sometimes wrong attitudes, wrong thoughts and especially wrong actions can become comfortable friends and it seems tough to change them. So let’s keep God at arm’s length shall we? I’ve found that if that’s what I want that’s what I get. And whilst doing my own thing by indulging in my own ideas of what’s good is attractive in the short term, it always destroys intimacy with the Lord and that’s never good. I’ve found one important key to knowing God is to live a Godly life. And that means surrendering our ideas of what’s right to his perfect truths. The Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20 are a pretty good starting point I reckon.

James 4:8 ‘Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. (NLT)