Just love me! (Cat’s in the Cradle)

Psa 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

Do you remember the 1974 song "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin? this folksy song is summed up well by Wikipedia...The song is told in first-person by a father who is too busy to spend time with his son. Though the son repeatedly asks him to join in childhood activities, the father always responds with little more than vague promises of spending time together in the future, which is peppered with images from nursery rhymes. While the son longs to spend time with his father, he continues to admire his father as a role model and tells him that he will be just like him when he is an adult. The third verse shows the son now having his own life in college and the father now wants to spend time with him. However, like his father, it is the son who now ironically does not have time for his father, pursuing his own life.
Years pass and the lonely, aging father, who is now retired and free from the constraints of work, desires yet again to spend time with his son, who by this time is a family man himself. Hoping to make up for lost time, the father reaches out to him again. The son however has his own life and family to worry about; he warmly responds that he is now too busy with his own work and family to spend time with (or even see) his father. Like his father once had, the son promises that someday in the future they will spend time together. The last verses end with the lines "I'd love to dad if I could find the time/You see my new job's a hassle and the kids have the flu/But it's sure nice talking to you, dad … And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me/He'd grown up just like me/My boy was just like me …".

So many times we get so caught up in trying to do something for God when He just wants us to be close to Him. Here, the Psalmist acknowledges God's desire for him to just open his ears and listen. He feels that, in this case, he ought to cease our activities, there will be plenty of opportunities for that later. Instead, he feels God wants to be loved and listened to. Honestly, parent, you may be pleased at all the work that your children accomplish at your behest. The chores need to be done. But, isn't it special when they just curl up next to you for some relationship time?

May God grant you that time or those times daily. May you take that time away from the din of the work-a-day to get close to the Lord and just love Him!