In step

This afternoon I went to visit my father-in-law. We sat and chatted for a while about various things. I then left my husband to talk with him as I was on a mission. I was looking for a box that would accomodate a project I am working on for Thursday.

I then got him set up with his medication and cleaned a little. Again, I sat and chatted with him. He is a writer and has written several poems composing two books beginning four years ago when my mother-in-law passed away. He loves to write and he loves to talk. He told us of several cousins that he knows are still alive in Salado, Tx that he wanted to go visit. Unfortunately, technology allowed us to see that they have all gone on. My father-in-law is that last of that generation.

We make every effort to go there a couple of times a week. Why do we find it so difficult to get there? He lives less than 5 miles from our house. Housework, obligations, extended family, other aging parents, careers, all keep us from stopping and visiting. He just longs to be with us. He has other friends that visit. Many are just around the corner in the neighborhood but it's not like a son or daughter visiting.

It made me think how similar that is with God. He longs to get a visit from us. He longs to hear from us, he desires that we connect with him...he just wants us to visit more than once or twice a week and yet, we are too busy, too tired, to overcommitted and there just isn't time.

As we left my father-in-law, I know he wondered when we would make it back. I walk out of his house and I jog to my vehicle because it was cold. My husband follows and then I hear it...the shuffling of the soft mocassins trying to catch up with us. It makes me stop in my tracks as this thought enters my mind:

His Steps First....that's what this blog is about-FOLLOWING God and yet we often get ahead of him, sometimes running. I heard the soft shuffle of the feet of a 97 year old man, trying to catch up and it impacted me. I wondered, "do I follow" or does God long for me to slow down.

I want to follow God. I don't want to hear the shuffle of feet because I am not in step with God. I want to walk in the steps he has prepared for me.

Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps. Psalm 85:11-13