Come Play with Me

We were having our spring conference, Voice of the Beloved, and I was trying to take an afternoon nap. The conference was amazing, and our last session was approaching. I was tired and was hoping to get a short one-hour nap in so I could be as present as possible. The kids were napping, my husband was napping, the house was quiet. I putzed around for a bit, and then not wanting to disturb my husband who had already fallen asleep, I decided to take a nap in our guest room. My jovial dog, Cooper, followed me downstairs. I was hoping it was because he wanted to enjoy a nap too. His hyper, happy demeanor caused me to question that thought though. He jumped up on the bed, which is fine. But as I began to fall asleep, he began to poke at my arm with his nose. I ignored him. He poked at my leg. I ignored him. He poked at my face, standing over me breathing his lovely dog breath on my face. He wanted to play! I decide to get him a dog bone. I ran upstairs and grabbed it for him, gave it to him and he enjoyed his bone while on the bed with me. “Aw, finally, I can fall asleep.” A few minutes later…the bone was devoured…Cooper was back in my face. “No, Cooper! Go to sleep!” I told him. He then ran upstairs, grabbed a plastic Chobani yogurt cup, ran back downstairs, jumped on the bed and started crunching the cup. Do you know how loud a yogurt cup can sound when you’re trying to take a nap? Yes, super loud. I finally started to drift off to sleep, and then in my head I heard a very loud KNOCK. It came from deep in my spirit and I knew that Jesus was knocking on the door my heart. “I stand at the door and knock,” Jesus shares with us in Revelation. The Lord began to show me that he wanted to hang out with me, talk together, play together. Cooper was a sign of that.

I was reminded of an earlier conversation with my daughter from the night before. The Holy Spirit was moving mightily in our midst. I was laid out on the floor. Actually, I was halfway under a chair—my head and shoulders under the chair, and my legs hanging out past the chair. I don’t know how long I was there. I just know that I was having one of the most amazing times with Jesus that I have ever had in my entire life. My whole body was trembling like I was cold except that I wasn’t cold. The face of Jesus was as close to my face as it had ever been. I both wept and laughed as He spoke to me, telling me things that He liked about me, and things that He was about to do. He even took me back to seventh grade saying, “Remember that time you got first place on the tennis team and you had never played tennis before? Hahaha! I liked that! I remember that! I was there!”

At some point, the kids came down from childcare. My daughter Abi found me and crawled under the chair with me. We laid there, face to face giggling and enjoying God’s presence together. She said to me, “Mom, are you still a kid?” She had asked me this same question earlier in the day, except she said it a little differently before. She said, “Mom, you’re still a kid. I mean, you still have parents so doesn’t that mean you’re still a kid?” At that time, I said, “Yes, you’re right, Abi!” But this time under the chair, I knew that Father God was speaking something different through Abi. I said to her, “Yes, Abi, God is my Father so I am still a kid. We are all his kids!”

God is calling us to come and play with him, to enjoy him again. He is your Papa. He went to your games, he heard your speeches, he saw your scratches. He loves your giggles, he loves your tears, he loves being there for you and living life with you. You are his child and he wants to play with you!