Date with the Divine

“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” Romans 16:16.

Recently, my granddaughter was sick with a lingering virus and couldn’t attend daycare on her scheduled days. After being out of her routine for a week, she was reluctant to enter her classroom, preferring to cling to me. I admit I was tired of her toddler company, as I usually have her two days a week, and it had spiked to five.

Full disclosure, the week we had spent together had drained my patience reserves. For three of the five sick days, she had a fever but refused to swallow medicine to bring it down. Instead, she decided that lying on my chest for three straight days while watching endless musical sign language videos http://www.signingtime.com was just fine. It was like wearing a very hot and heavy sweater for three days.

Dear reader, I don’t know if you have ever spent any considerable time with a two-year-old. Still, they are notoriously needy and masters at sapping your energy with military precision. That is when they are healthy! Let’s say I was *really * looking forward to making a quick getaway.

My granddaughter was not on board with my plan. She was happy to remain in the hallway, checking out a hamster in his cage. However, the moment I tried to bring her across the threshold of her classroom door, you would have thought she was an uninvited vampire about to burst into flames. She commenced whining and crying and became a dead weight, and I had to drag her into the classroom. I resigned myself to sitting on the floor, holding her in my lap until she reacclimated to her toddler terrain.

Then came the God moment. The one I believe that He knew I needed, but I didn’t. A little girl named Juniper, with blond hair, blue eyes, and a cupid-bow mouth, walked by. I commented that I liked the frilly tutu and fuzzy slippers she was wearing. Juniper was happy I appreciated her aesthetic and warmed to me like a flower to the sun. Then she just stopped and stared at me, a very long gaze with direct eye contact. Juniper’s soul gaze was rather startling at first, especially in an age where people barely look up from their phone screens to acknowledge your existence. If this had been a fellow adult, it would have been uncomfortable, but with Juniper, it felt like she was looking for something in me and, satisfied she had found it, said, “I want to kiss you.”

I looked to the teacher for my cue. She nodded her head that it was fine. I gave Juniper the green light. She gave me a feather-light kiss. She repeated, gazing into my soul, “I want to hug you.” I was genuinely happy to accept. Juniper gives amazing hugs. Long, not stingy.

I asked the teacher, ” Are the toddlers always so affectionate?” She assured me they were.

After my granddaughter decided my lap was now sufficiently boring, she moved on to playing, and I began the drive home. In the quiet of my car, I found myself with tears streaming down my face. I had no idea how much I needed this refreshing affection. Affection devoid of romantic agenda, guile, or deceit, as the Bible intends for this command in Romans 16:16.

It’s not every day I feel God personally greet me, but that morning, His love wore a tutu and fizzy slippers.

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