My rock-and-roll kitty

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. -  Psalm 42:1 (NIV)
      
      
One day about two years ago my neighbor appeared at my door, with a soft, white and gray kitten. “It just showed up,” she said.
      
I held out my arms.
      
I named her “Rascal,” because, well, she was such a rascal—hiding under the bed when I made it, scooting out and swatting my foot with her sharp claws, then scooting back to safety, like she was playing a game of hide and tag. She had other lurking places, too.
      
Rascal must have been taken from her mother too soon, because she seems to adopted me for the role. She likes to be close to me. Sometimes too close. She hops up on the bed at night—or whenever I lie down—and snuggles up next to my leg. When I’m watching TV or reading, I find her nestled my lap. She often curls up at my feet when I’m working at the computer or having my devotions. Once I forgot she was there and moved my desk chair, which has rollers on the bottom—and rolled over some part of her. My quiet time chair—an antique rocking chair—isn’t any safer. She lies so close that, if I’m not careful, I rock on her. Hence I call her my rock-and-roll kitty.
      
But my rocking and rolling on her hasn’t stopped her from wanting to be close to me.
   
Just like Rascal wants to be close to me, so God wants us to want to be close to Him. He wants us to want Him more than anything else—to desire the Giver more than the gift, the One who answers prayer more than the answer, His presence more than His provision.
   
He wants us to have a heart like David’s, whom God called “a man after my own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). David’s was a heart that wanted God above all else:
      

• “Better is a day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere” (Psalm 84:10).      
• “My soul finds rest in God alone” (Psalm 62:1)      
• “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs for you” (Psalm 42:1).     
• “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).

      
I wish I could say that’s where I’m at—wanting God more than anything. I know that’s where I should be. The only time I really want God the way He wants to be wanted is when I need something only He can provide. Unanswered prayer, impossible problems, feelings of helplessness, all drive me to Him.
      
I need to be like my rock-and-roll kitty, who just wants to be close to me.
      
And so I pray . . .
      
Dear God, I want to want You more than anything, but I’ve got a long way to go. Too many other wants crowd You out. Place the desire for You alone in my heart, so I can pray with sincerity: O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Amen.