July 9, 2006 @ 4:10 pm | Filed under: Family

My cell phone rang last night at five ’till ten. I saw my son-in-law’s mobile number on caller ID and answered the phone, expecting to hear either his or Amy’s voice on the other end of the line.

Instead I hear excited toddler chatter, complete with enthusiastic voice inflection, laughs, and a full three minutes of non-stop one-sided, totally unintelligible conversation.

"Hi, Kendall," I tried to get in a word edgewise, "What are you doing up at ten o’clock, baby girl?"

In response, she launches into another excited conversation and I walk through the house to find Mike and my mother-in-law, pointing to the phone and mouthing, it’s Kendall. Mike stands close and we both listen with mile-wide grins as Kendall goes from one sentence to the next with scarcely a breath in between.

If only we had the smallest clue what she was saying…

Finally she seems to be coming to the end of her story and there is the briefest of pauses and then she says, as clear as a bell, "Okay, Nana…?  Okay."

We still had no clue what she’d been describing to us. Or asking us. Or even complaining about.

But, in her mind, it was settled.

Okay…? Okay.

And my response?

Well, sure, I did what any self-respecting, card-carrying Nana would do in this circumstance.

"Okay, honey. Okay."

What did I agree to? I’m still not sure. But when your two-year-old granddaughter has just thrilled you with an out-of-the-blue phone call, excitedly filling you in on her little personal parcel of the world, ending with, "Okay, Nana? Okay," you’ll say whatever you think her sweet heart wants or needs to hear.

I wonder if that is how God feels sometimes when I come to Him, excitedly relaying in great detail my thoughts, my ideas, my plans. With definite, if not infinite, patience, He listens, gently allowing me to pour my heart and soul out to Him.

And then He says, as only He can, "Okay, my child, okay."

It will be a couple more years before Kendall can truly express to us all the wonderful things that play across her mind and intersect her life. Right now we smile and laugh and are thrilled to hear the excitement in her voice. We don’t know what her plans are. We don’t know the thoughts that run across the playground of her mind.

But we encourage her to dream big.

Sometimes it takes me a while to truly express to God the wonderful things that bubble inside of me. But I can sense Him smiling and I think He’s probably thrilled to hear excitement in my voice.

It’s yet to be discovered if my plans or thoughts or dreams will ever see fruition.

But He encourages me to dream big.