"i will watch for You..."

"I am ever with thee,
and all that I have is thine..."


"what are you watching for,"
I ask him from the
chair across the room...

cousins and uncles,
great aunts, and the neighbor
lady with a bundt cake,
are milling about the
drafty farmhouse
sitting at the end a narrow
lane covered with snow...

staring out the a breath-misted
pane of icy glass,
from his perch on the window seat
he doesn't skip a beat...

" i am waiting for my daddy
to come home
for Thanksgiving..."

"oh, honey,
I say...there is a very big
storm where he is, and I don't
know if he is going to be
able to drive all the way home
today...didn't mommy
tell you that?"

"yes," he replies, without
taking his eyes off the driveway,
"but daddies
always keep their word...
my daddy will
be here."

he doesn't move
while we finish savory,
then sweet,

"save a piece of pumpkin
pie for me and dad"
he calls from where he
waits like a
sentry on watch...

his mother never urges
him away from
the window...

she later tells me that
she feels
at peace,
in his hopefulness,
safe in his
unquestioning trust...

he is still sitting there
when I climb the
stairs...and

long after I have gone to
bed I hear
muffled laughter
coming from the kitchen at
the back of the house

I tiptoe
down to see
what I am
missing, and

there,
he and his dad are eating
pie...

slipping quietly
back to bed,
beneath the heavy
quilts, and under the
moonlight coming through the
frosted windows,
I reach out to
my Father, as tears of
gratitude fall
through the hair at
my temples

"thank you,"
I say, in the silence,
"thank you for this reminder
of what a trusting,
faithful,
unshaken,
tenacious,
expectant,
watching, for
a beloved Parent's presence
looks
like..

I won't forget...

I will
watch for You...

because I, too, know
that my
Father
always
keep
His Word...