Hear My Cry

Last night was a great experience with grandchildren. It was the grandparents' job to close out the day - trampoline jumping, swimming, a shower, dinner, finishing reading "The Last Battle" by C. S. Lewis with them, a snack, brush teeth, jump into bed. Time for a story - so I told them a story about their mother when she was a little girl even younger than they are.

And this is my story: "She was young, and she loved her grandparents - you know, Granny and Grandpa. We were in California and they were in Oklahoma, and that's a long way. We had friends who were going to Wichita, Kansas, in an airplane, so we let her fly with them. That was her first time in an airplane. And Granny and Grandpa drove from Oklahoma to Kansas and met her when she got off the plane. They drove back to Oklahoma, and I bet they stopped for ice cream along the way. They had a good time - did you know your Mom loved to catch grasshoppers? She caught a big jarful with her great grandfather on that trip; he's my daddy's daddy. (One of the kids said, "She wouldn't do that now.") But in those days she loved grasshoppers and frogs and all things that moved.

When the visit was over, Granny and Grandpa took her to Oklahoma City to catch a plane and return home. She was to fly alone - well, not all alone - the flight attendants take good care of kids who fly. When they got to the airport, and the luggage was on the plane, and the people were getting on, a man called the airport and said there was a bomb on the plane. So they hurriedly got everyone off and took off all the luggage. They did a careful search of everything.

Your Mom called me from the airport and told me she was scared. I was really glad that I know something of the Bible -- you will want to learn all you can of the Bible, and where everything is, so you can use it for good. I asked her to get her Bible out of her carry-on -- she always carried her Bible places with her - and open it to Psalm 61. Then I read the words of the first few verses and sang the song that goes with it: 'Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. From the ends of the earth I cry unto you. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I, that is higher than I."

I told her to keep those words in her mind and to pray - to ask God to be with her and help her heart to be encouraged. And she did. And she came home. So please keep these words in your mind when you have trouble."

One of the kids said, "Did they find the bomb?" "No," I said, "there wasn't one. They searched every place, then allowed the plane to fly. But it was still scary, and a real adventure. Sometimes there is no real problem when we think there is, but either way, we put our trust in God."

The grandparents then sang the song several times to the grandchildren as they went to sleep. Softly they met the night. We looked down at them for a few minutes, asking that they be spared the troubles of the world, but asking even more that they be given strength and courage and undying hope in God's great love.