Date Night
It started with a joke. While driving home from church, Kate, my 3 year old asked us if we can eat at Red Bowl, a Chinese restaurant not very far from where we live. We have eaten there 3 weeks ago and she just fell in love with their chicken fried rice.
To be honest with you, it still amazes me that this preschooler has taken it upon herself to be the Where-Do-We-Eat-After-Church coordinator.
Melody, my wife didn’t feel like eating out. She told Kate that we can have some leftover soup. But Kate was not having any of it! Her mind was set on having some fried rice from Red Bowl.
I’m not sure if it was out of exasperation or divine inspiration that Melody said, “Mommy and Andrew (our toddler) are having some rice with soup at home. If you want fried rice, you can go to Red bowl with daddy.” In my amazement, Kate said, “Sure, daddy and I will have a date.”
I’ve heard of some of my friends taking their children out, one at a time, for “dates”. I made a mental note that I’d do it later. I never thought that I’d be doing it this early. Kate, after all, is just 3 and a half years old.
After dropping everyone else home, Kate and I headed to Red Bowl to have our first father-daughter date night.
I took my phone out and snapped a selfie. We ordered her chicken fried rice. She made sure I ordered it without peas and carrots. She didn’t care much for those. The person waiting on us gave us some crayons and two pages from a coloring book. We started coloring. We also had a nice chat about her favorite things at school.
It turned out to be a wonderful evening. I felt so blessed with having been given the chance to spend some quality time my daughter. I can’t wait for our next father-daughter date.
Jesus also enjoyed spending some time with his father. His apostle Mark wrote “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.” Prayer seemed like a very important part of Jesus’ life.
One day, Jesus’ cousin John was murdered. When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself (Matthew 14:13). However, a crowd, hungry for his teaching, followed him on foot. Out of his love for them, he spent the whole day teaching them. Most of the 5000 men that came that day forgot to pack their lunch. Unfortunately, there were no Burger King or KFC around. Jesus decided to feed them himself by multiplying five loaves of bread and two fish.
Jesus must have been physically and emotionally exhausted! John’s death was still fresh in his mind and he just spent the entire day teaching. If I were in his sandals, I would have had a few Bud Lights with John, Peter, and Matthew.
He did no such thing. In fact, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening, he was there alone (Mt 14:23).
Jesus wanted to spend some time with his father! He probably thanked his father for helping him feed so many people. I bet he also gave his father a bear hug and cried his heart out about his cousin’s death.
I’m sure his father cherished such intimate moments.
We are all God’s children and I imagine our heavenly father eagerly waiting to have some one-on-one time with us. He delights in having a feast with his whole family. This is what happens when we join our brethren in church.
However, God wants to spend some quality time with us. Just us. One-on-one. In fact, God wants to spend a lot of time with us. He wants to do this every day, or even several times a day.
We can oblige our father by praying often. I’m not just talking about saying grace before meals or lifting up a prayer so that Ben Roethlisberger would not get sacked (or that he gets sacked, depending on which team you like).
The prayer I’m talking about is spending some QT with God telling him everything — praising him for his greatness, saying sorry for our sins, giving thanks for his gifts, asking help for our needs, and listening to what he has to say.
What are you waiting for? Get on your knees. It’s your date night with God.
