Penny For Your Thoughts

Psalm 139:17 -- "How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God."

image: withart.visitphilly.com

Four blank, unblinking stares met us from across the living room floor as Steven and I stood in the kitchen, leaning on the counter - awaiting some kind of response to the unexpected news we'd just shared with our parents.

Um ... anything? Joy? Terror? .... no? Nothing?

Just crickets. I mean, literally - I could hear the crickets outside.

Well, I for one wasn't TOO surprised.

Two months into our marriage I started feeling a little strange. I almost knew right off the bat what it was - a woman can kind of tell these things. So, on a pit stop at the Kroger near my parents' home in South Carolina, I quickly picked up a pregnancy test - on kind of whim. The pink and white box was just sitting there - staring at me - in the checkout lane. [yes - it was actually on the thing I call the "impulse shelf" - right there next to the moving rubber belt and all the gum - in the checkout lane.]

Bingo. Pink line on the test strip. Baby Tyler was on his way.

I snuck in next to Steven and my little brother while they were doing something on the computer in the office. Making eye contact with my better - no, my BEST half - I nodded my head. I couldn't stop smile/tearing up. It's not that we were PLANNING on Tater right off the bat. But we weren't exactly NOT trying for him, either. To be honest - due some health stuff going on - I didn't think Tyler COULD happen at that point.

So the two of us made our way into the kitchen while our four parents were chilling out in the living room. When we asked for their attention and announced that they were going to be grandparents again - it became so quiet you could hear the proverbial pin drop.

Man - I sure wish we could tell what they were thinking right about then.

After a pause so pregnant that I was sure it was going to deliver twins [pun intended] they finally all kind of mumbled congratulations at the same time. Then there were the questions. Then there were congratulations again.

All in all - a really good memory. But what I wouldn't give to be privy to the things whirling around in all four brains during those long silent moments after the announcement. Tyler is 17 and I STILL don't know what our parents were pondering.

Sure - I can remember the words they spoke after the big reveal. But I can't help but wonder what it was they were actually thinking.

We are so very privileged as a people - that we have God's living Word available to us at any moment. I think back to the time of Paul and Peter and Moses and Noah - and often wonder HOW they managed day to day without the Bible as we have it - ever at the ready at our fingertips.

But there are moments when I want to know what God thinks. How weighty are His ponderings, to me.

Right now - in a world spinning ever faster out of control and away from God - what does God think about it all? About the politics? About the economy? About the Church? ... About the music to which we listen? About the things we do in our spare time? About the commercialism of the holiday season?

My Awesome Creator - fill me with Your Holy Spirit - that I may please you. How very weighty are your thoughts to me, O God. Create in me a pure heart and a clean spirit that I may make them happy ones.