An Interview with God You Say?

 

An Interview with God You Say?

Publishers Note: This is a column I put together many years ago and always seems appropriate as the Christmas season rolls around year-after-year. The year originally used is buried in the deep recesses of my laptop, but I suspect it was around 2011 since that when my first knee surgery occurred. I’ve taken some liberties but enjoy the message and the reason for the season.

 Earlier this week, I swung by The Coves pro shop for a bit of lunch for the first time since my knee replacement surgery on Pearl Harbor Day. There weren’t many around as the temperature on the first tee was hovering around forty and it didn’t appear the all-knowing “Noon Group” would muster a game. George McCreary, by choice, and Jim Gray, because he’s paid to do so, were the only ones on hand.

 After proudly displaying the still-in-place staples

View from the Publisher's Perch

holding my right knee together following the long overdue surgery, McCreary inquired as to what I might be doing with the rest of the day since golf didn’t seem to be an option. I told my audience of two I had a column to write for this week’s Grand Times on Grand Lake blog. George followed up his original question by asking, “What heavy issue of importance will be in your blog this time?” I said simply, “It’s an interview with God.”

 The silence was deafening, but McCreary, who is rarely at a loss for words, went on to inquire, “You been asking for God’s help with your golf game?”  I told George he’d just have to check it out on Facebook or visit my blog at Grand Times on Grand Lake with yours truly and find out, but the answer is as follows for the sake of convenience.

 I dreamed I had an interview with God.

 “Come in,” God said. “So, you would like to interview Me?”

 “If you have the time,” I said.

 God smiled and said, “My time is eternity and is enough to do everything; what questions do you have in mind to ask me?”

 So, I said, “What surprised you the most about mankind?”

 God answered, “That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. Then they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future. That they live as if they will never die, and then die as if they had never lived.”

 God’s hands took mine. We were silent for a while and then I asked: “As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?”

 God replied with a smile, “To learn they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is let themselves be loved. To learn what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives. To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. All will be judged individually on their own merits, not as a group on a comparison basis. To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most but is the one who needs the least. To learn it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in people we love, and that it takes many years to heal them. To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness. To learn there are people who love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings. To learn that money can buy everything but happiness.”

 “To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it totally different.”

 “To learn that a true friend is someone who knows everything about them…and likes them anyway. To learn that it isn’t always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they have to forgive themselves.”

 I sat there for a while enjoying the moment. I thanked Him for His time and for all He had done for me, and my family and He replied, “Anytime. I’m here 24 hours a day. All you have to do is ask for Me and I’ll answer.”

 People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

 A confession for the record: George and Jim Gray really didn’t prod me about this interview with God, but I’ve used it over the years and its special message. For Mimi, the "Nurse Ratchet" at the Veteran’s Clinic in Vinita and a certified Grand Laker who was the first to request this interview be published again, there you go.

 May we never lose sight of the real reason for the season and might I take this opportunity to wish a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all.

 See Ya’ Around the Pond!!