Spending Time with Children

I have been really struck in my readings and experience about the value of spending time with God.  Of course, you say.  Surely that is a given - especially for a minister! But time is so precious, and if like me you are a busy person, wearing multiple hats, sometimes time is a commodity you appear to have very little of.

As a working mum, who happens to work mostly from home, the school holidays can become a bit of a challenge, especially for the youngest. These past couple of days I have been working away at my desk, balancing the random requests for food, mostly sweets, and the “I’m bored” comments into my day.  However, a promise of a shared activity gave me another hour of peace for work, and then it was off to the kitchen to make custard creams.  Today was a walk to the post office to drop off mail, and deliver some Easter cards for the Church, with the promise of a slushy for the wee lass.  Both events, lasting no more than an hour each, were opportunities for bonding, conversation, learning, shared tasks and comfortable silence.

It strikes me as I read through Jeremiah (a tough read), the Psalms, and John’s Gospel in particular, that spending time with God isn’t just about worship and church services.  It’s about that relationship with God that includes the highs and the lows, that recognises our humanity and his divinity, and that welcoming embrace when we need it most.  My child learns from my experience in the kitchen, but has a go herself.  My child shares her learning with me with pride, even if I already know it, and explains how they do maths now (which proves to me that I have no chance understanding it when she goes to high school). We are children of God, and God invites us to learn from his experience, to take time to bond with him in the garden, over the sink washing the dishes, sharing in his mission of love and life for all, or just enjoying comfortable silence in his loving presence.

Rather than make God-time a task of the day, why not make a conscious decision to share the day with God?  Kind of like having the children home on a working day, complete with interruptions and requests, let God interrupt your day, and for sure, interrupt his.  As Holy Week approaches, how might God become not an add-on or a task, but a relationship that you nurture?  Then when we consider how Jesus died and rose for you, for me, suddenly we are not talking about an abstract person, but someone very real to us, like my daughter holding my hand and bouncing up and down with excitement.

“I am a God who is near,” says the Lord.
    “I am also a God who is far away.
24 No one can hide
    where I cannot see him,” says the Lord.
    “I fill all of heaven and earth,” says the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:23-24 NCV)

God is with us - always.  Sometimes, we just need to look up from our busy lives, and accept the invitation to lay down our busyness and make cakes or go for a walk.  As Lent draws to a close, take time to lay down the busyness, and enjoy being with God, not just in the formal times, but even more so through the informal times. 

God bless.