I was watching a pod of children last week. One of the girls was disgruntled.
"I am bored," she announced as if she were reluctantly admitting peons to her court. She tossed back her hair as she whooshed by on a red scooter.
"What would you like to be doing?" I inquired.
"I want to go home."
"What would you do there?" I invited her to elaborate.
She continued riding and wrinkled her mouth in thought.
"I would play outside. With Emily. I would swing on the swing set, really high."
I noted but did not mention that Emily, her neighbor, was not twenty feet away, on the playground.
"I would have fun," she sealed the argument.
Now it is possible that she was missing her own target, and wished for something she could not articulate. But she reminded me of those games when you write something on someone's back and they cannot see it. If playing outside on a bright spring day with Emily was what her heart desired, it was right in front of her.
Sometimes people get exactly what they hoped for, only they seem to not notice. I once heard a woman pine for that certain young man to propose, and then to have a couple of rosy cheeked cherubs. But I checked back with her a few years later, after the wishes came true, and she was as disgruntled as the girl on the scooter.
I too am guilty of it. I remember feeling like a prisoner in the bathroom with a mediocre potty training student. I wanted to be anywhere but where I was. Then I remembered.
This was precisely what I had asked God for. I looked up at the girl with a ruffled dress as she told an animated story to her fingers.
"The little birdy sang to the squirrel, 'Chirrup, chirrup!' and the squirrel gave her a nut." (nibble, nibble) She seemed not to mind that we had been sitting there for twenty minutes.
Years ago I was babysitting a friend's three children. They gave me a wad of cash with which to entertain their kids for the afternoon. I was feeling extravagant, and said "yes" to every request of another ice cream cone or pink balloon. But in contrast to what I expected, which was lavishly grateful kids, I felt like I was slogging through an endless string of demands.
I wonder how God feels when he gives us precisely what we asked for and waits for the hug.
