Shoeless Before God

My kids have staked a claim on a row of chairs at church. No seriously. When you walk in the doors of the sanctuary at 10:15, you will see a bag sitting nicely on the end seat, awaiting them. They placed it there 45 minutes prior when they went to Sunday school. And by 10:30? The entire row will be strewn with crayons, paper, dolls, doll hair, doll clothes, Bibles and many more items snuck into overall pockets after Mom did the "bag check" before leaving the house. And then you will see the shoes. Every one of my kids will at some point, usually early on before the first song or first line in the day's message, remove their shoes. Oooooh, it irks me. How disrespectful! Come on, you can't leave your shoes on for 90 minutes?

But yesterday, God let me look through a different lens for a minute. I glanced across the aisle to one of my favorite little girls sitting with her grandmother. She had slipped off her shoes and was nuzzled next to her grandma in pink stockinged feet, looking through her Veggie Tales coloring book. She looked cozy, loved and so at home. Not disrespectful. Comfortable. Like she was settling in for a long visit.

That picture stayed with me all day. And I started asking some hard questions.

Why am I so worried about what I look like? What my kids look like? What my pew looks like? Why am I so worried if I have it all together? Those mornings I don't - why pretend?

And the hardest question: When it is all stripped away - the church walls, the pews, the decorations, the other people, the music...when it is just me and God...what will I find?

This is what I want to find: I want to know that when it comes down to it, I am not depending on the emotion of beautiful music to know that I love God. I want to know that people seeing Christ through me and my family has nothing to do with how we look...or how our pew looks. I want to know that when it comes down to it and all else is stripped away, I will sit and be still. Kick off my shoes. And settle in for a long visit.

I would shut out the static noise of the world around me. I would quiet the opinions and voices of others for just a few minutes. I would grab that Holy Book and listen to the only Voice that will lead me the right way 100 percent of the time. I would sit as if snuggled next to my Father and pour out my heart. I would cry. He gets my pain. I would laugh. He has a sense of humor, of this I am sure! I would hand it all to Him.

This world is so loud and so pervasive. We are desensitized to all of the things that are destroying our families, our homes, towns and nation. We spew doctrine and tell others what Jesus would do...without ever cracking open our Bible.

I would be so bold as to suggest that in this crazy, noisy, messy world, we would reserve our spot. Go ahead and get comfortable. In the midst of our crayons, dolls...briefcases, schedules, computers and more, we would kick off our shoes and get comfortable with our Father.

He likes when we visit.