Standing Up My Turkish Date

This is it, the moment I’ve been excited about all day.

Dinner is cleared away, homeschooling is in a lull, and my family is occupied.

I’ve thought about him, talked about him, and glanced at him throughout the day, but our times were always brief.

To set a relaxed tone, I boil water in my tarnished round teakettle, and pour it over decaf coffee grounds. Four minutes after the rolling boil, ripples of sultry Turkish coffee and cardamom mirror the light and waft fragrant in the air.

Balancing my Bible and journal precariously on the narrow wooden desk and the adjacent couch arm, I meet with God. “Lord, I need you. I want you. Please meet with me here in your word, teach me. Make your word come alive to me.”

My bookmark opens to John 17. It’s the section with Jesus’s longest recorded prayer, and the chapter is divided into three sections: “Jesus Prays for Himself,” “Jesus Prays for his Disciples,” and “Jesus Prays for All Believers.” And questions spring up already in my mind, wondering what it looks like to have the God-Man pray for himself. What will he ask? What is important to him and what’s on his heart?

Before I get much further, though, the interruptions come. Family members ask questions, a teen has homework problems, my sopping-wet preschooler needs a bucket for his bath, needs help locating a toy before the water swirls away, and needs help getting out of the bath.

Maneuvering Lego piles, I assist a frantic five year old find a toy. I wrap him in a fluffy red towel (“My favorite!” he exclaims, smiling at the color) and I kiss his swirled dark hair, water still clinging to my lips.

High school homework questions beckon now, and I’ll need to lean in close as we study writing compositions together, checking for errors and correcting sentence structure. Bedtimes and teeth-brushing loom too.

So, John 17 and Jesus’s prayer for himself, and for you and me? My Bible waits on the edge of the couch, and I must wait as well.


(Photo credit: Marviikad, Creative Commons, cc licensing)