I couldn’t wait for her to get home. It was for a lot of simple reasons. However, I knew her face would light up when she saw what I had for her.

She has a thing for Nutcrackers this year. Actually, ever since we saw a local performance two years ago. She doesn’t want these pretty figurines to sit idle on a shelf, though. Time and again, she has put pieces of actual nuts in their mouths, pulling the lever to see if the thing can crack a nut.

We found a small nutcracker at our local dollar store last week. I told her she’d have to be careful with it, but we’d hopefully get a little bit of playing time out of it. Then, when she had a sleepover at grandma’s on Saturday, she came home with a larger blue nutcracker grandma had among her holiday decorations. Again, all we heard about was whether or not the thing could crack a nut.

My husband stopped for milk after work on Monday. It’s a writing week for me and I’m trying hard to learn how to discipline myself to stay home and, well, write. When he picked up milk, he looked for nuts in their shells, but didn’t see any at the store where he stopped.

Yesterday afternoon, I took a break because we did need groceries, and I had a few more Christmas gifts to get. At the store, I looked for whole nuts in their shells. No luck in the baking aisle. No luck by the salty snacks. However, as I went to fresh produce, there stood a display - holiday nuts (I think I saw it light up and sound out the Hallelujah chorus when I walked by). Jackpot! I grabbed a bag of unsalted, unsweetened pecans in their shells. Now, we could put the nutcracker to the test (although I wondered who was going to eat a whole bag of plain nuts).

In the same trip, I picked up a movie we’ve been wanting to watch. I found a book I knew she was going to love to read. I re-stocked our pantry shelves with some of her favorite snacks.

That’s why I couldn’t wait for her to get home. The nutcracker does work (sort of). We saved the movie for tonight because last night was full of other activities. I caught her reading the book in bed with her book-light past her bedtime. She’s already taste-tested almost every new snack. I took such delight in knowing she enjoyed these things.

It all made me realize, we know our daughter very well. These were small things, but I knew they’d bring her great big pleasure. All of this brought a certain verse to mind.

As bad as you are, you’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think God who conceived you in love will be even better? Matthew 7:11 (Message)

Our blessings are so tailored to us. God knows us intimately and sometimes, when he blesses me with something so-delightful-to-me (like a good book that makes me excited or a from-scratch soup that turns out exactly right), I envision him sitting on his throne and clapping his hands. 

I knew she’d like it. I just knew it. 

Can we think of God this way? I know he’s got a lot of work to do. He’s just and jealous and righteous. I also know I couldn’t wait for our daughter to get home so I could give her some simple pleasures. I think he’s all about that too.