When I was a little girl, my grandma had a vegetable garden. We would spend time picking green beans, corn, and sometimes yellow squash with her. I can remember asking her if I could eat a corn cob right off of the plant. She said, “Go ahead. Just watch out for worms or bugs!” I have so many memories of being with my grandmother, snapping beans and cleaning corn. We knew dinner at her house would be delicious, and it tasted even better knowing that me, my sister, and my grandmother had a part in preparing it.
Back then, we had a telephone (with a long cord that would stretch the length of the house) and the classic answering machine. My grandma would call our home almost every day, or at least, it seemed that way to me as a child. If we did not answer, she would leave a message beginning with the words “It’s just me,” then she would continue with her message. We knew it was her by her familiar voice, and we could see on the answering machine display that the phone number was hers. If we were home when she called, I would call out, “Mom! It’s Grandma!” Mom would then tell me to answer it.
One of my many fond memories of my grandma was that, even when I became an adult, we both made it a rule to call each other often. During our calls, I told her about my day or asked her to pray about something with me. Often, we just talked. After she went to Heaven, I missed hearing her say those sweet words at the beginning of each call: “It’s just me.”
The Bible says in Psalm 18:3, I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised:… Verse 6 says, In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. As Christians, we always have a way to talk to our Heavenly Father. We can go to Him anytime and say, “It’s just me.” We can ask Him anything, tell Him about our day, thank Him, and praise Him. He wants to talk to us every day. He wants to hear us say, “It’s just me.” He knows our voices. Even better, He already knows our needs. He loves us and looks forward to our conversations with Him. May we not waste anymore time; just call on Him today and say, “Lord, it’s just me.”
“And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.”
– C. Austin Miles, hymn “I Come to the Garden Alone”
by Mandy Harper
