Dusty Shoes

A few days ago my co-worker Rick asked if I would be interested in going for lunch with him and so we decided that we would go to the Iceberg just down the road and since it was such a beautiful day we also decided to enjoy our lunch in the screened patio area of the restaurant. We chatted as we waited for our numbers to be called and before too long Rick was up to get his food and a short while later my number was called.

That was when I got my first glimpse of her. 

She was sitting in a high chair facing away from me, close to the door that I was headed for, but she turned around.  She was about 1 or so and when our eyes met her face broke into a huge smile and she began waving her little hand at me.  I stopped for a moment and waved back, greeting her quickly before I continued walking. 

What a sweetheart I thought to myself.  I didn’t have a clue of who she was, nor did I recognize the two women with her, but they were all very friendly. 

Rick and I enjoyed our lunch, having casual conversation about nothing in particular when suddenly I heard little footsteps running toward our table.  I turned to the side and here came that same little girl toddling over to me as if we were long lost friends and when she arrived at my chair she put up her arms wanting to be held.

I reached down and picked her up, standing her on my lap and she grinned, her eyes sparkling as I spoke to her.  She had no words, but her eyes and her smile spoke volumes.  I chatted with the little girl for a bit and then I spoke for a moment with the two women that were with her. 

It didn’t take long and she was ready to go off running to her mom. After they walked away Rick asked, “Do you know them?”

“No,” I replied, “I don’t have a hot clue of who they are!”  But that little girl had definitely won my heart.

Shortly before one we drove back to the church and a few minutes after arriving back at the office I stopped in Phillip’s doorway to talk.  He kindly pointed out the fact that I had dust on my pants, after all, he is our fashion critic…lol  I looked down and then smiled as I saw 2 perfect tiny foot marks from the little girl’s shoes on my pants. 

The next morning as I was writing out my prayer to God in my journal this little girl kept coming to mind.  She was such a sweetheart, with no inhibitions about letting me know that she was there and wanted my attention.

It got me to thinking again about God’s love languages, particularly quality time, and how this little girl was probably the perfect example of what God desires from us.  There was no hesitation on her part to come and grab my attention; she radiated love from the top of her curly blond head to the tips of her tiny dusty shoes.  Her dusty shoes that had left their mark on my clothes, something that her and I both didn’t care about as we had our little moment there in the restaurant.

And God is exactly the same, He doesn’t care if we come to him dirty and dusty; He just wants us to come.  When we enter His presence we do not need to be ashamed or shy, we don’t have to wait to come to him until we think we are presentable or go to Him only when we have issues we need resolved.  He’s waiting to bond with us as our Father at whatever point we are at in our lives. 

This little girl said nothing, but she listened carefully to every word I spoke to her, her eyes never leaving my face.  And isn’t that what God wants too?  Not for us to come to Him with a litany of words that we want Him to listen too, but for us to know when to be still and listen so that we can hear what He has to say or to simply enjoy His presence. 

We need to come to him radiating our love and passion for Him, not simply with a laundry list of things for Him to solve or forgive. 

God deserves to be the center of our whole world.  He deserves those same moments like I had with that little girl, moments where our eyes are only on Him and nothing else going on in our world matters because He is the Father who loves us dearly.

And trust me; God is totally OK with your dusty shoes!

"Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."   Hebrews 4:16