Touching Base

I have this "tea-towel" with its inscription framed and hanging on the wall in my dining room. The inscription speaks for itself.  This was a unique gift from my mother to me for Christmas in 1996, ten years before she passed from this earth to her heavenly home.  She knew that I loved and appreciated "old things", especially when they had some significance in relation to someone I knew and loved.  She also knew that I collected and treasured old teacups and teapots along with most anything to do with "teatime".  With her admonition to "display it to good advantage with your tea things or antiques"...I immediately had it framed and hung it proudly in my "tearoom" dining room.  If I recall correctly, on this particular Christmas we were living in a lovely antique home in Fryeburg, Maine.  Antique in that it was built in 1848, so it definitely qualified. This home was rich in history and local fame.  I wish I could say that it belonged to our family tree, but alas! We were merely fortunate enough to lease it for a year while in between ministries and journeys.  But I digress...that is not what this is about.

I guess I was feeling a bit nostalgic tonight and wanted to touch base with my mother again. You know how children do that? Oftentimes when they are out playing in the yard, sometimes they will just run back in  the house to "touch base" with Mom.  Perhaps needing a little word of comfort for a "boo-boo", or to gift her with a handful of dandelions or other lovely weeds, or to ask for a drink of water or a snack.  Maybe they just feel the need for a hug or some reassurance that everything is okay...and then they are off and running again until the next moment they feel like Mama is a little too far away and they need to touch base once again.

That's how I was feeling. I wanted to run into my Mama's arms and give her a hug and feel her arms around me again.  I wanted to hear her voice calling my name...telling me it's time to come in and get cleaned up for supper.  If I ignored her the first or second time she called, I could always expect her to call me by all three names, "Pamela Anne Mursch, get in this house right now!" Then I knew I'd better get going or I'd find myself in trouble for certain!

I find myself also longing to hear my Father's voice...yes, of course my earthly father, whom I miss greatly since he left this world for heaven too...but in this case, it is my heavenly Father's voice that I am longing to hear.  I find that I often need to "touch base" with Him as well...to run back inside His arms and feel His loving embrace and hear His words of comfort and reassurance that everything is going to be okay.  I sometimes literally run into His presence and want to show Him my "boo-boos", and ask Him to make them go away. Sometimes He does just that...He binds up my wounds and takes away my scars so that I don't have to be ashamed of them anymore.

Then again, there are times that He says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."  (2 Corinthians 12:9)  and He gives me the strength I need to carry on and keep going in spite of my "boo-boos".

I am looking forward to the day when I will hear Jesus call my name...when He will say to me,

"Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world..." (Matthew 25:34)

I hope I won't make Him have to call me more than once.  I have a feeling I'll be ready to obey His voice immediately.  Why? Because I know where He's calling me to go.  Listen to what He told His disciples before He left them for heaven:

"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

In My Father's house are many mansions; 

if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; 

that where I am, there you may be also.

And where I go you know, and the way you know."

Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, 

and how can we know the way?"

Jesus said to him,

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father

except through Me."

John 14:1-6

So, how about you? Have you "touched base" with your "Father" lately? Your Heavenly Father, that is? Are you ready to go when He calls your name?  I hope you won't make Him call you more than once...

Better get ready...it's almost "supper time"...

Here's an old song that I'm sure many of you will remember... talk about being nostalgic...sorry...but it's a good one...

Johnny Cash singing "Come Home, It's Supper Time"