A bit of "Elsie".... I wrote this one morning after hearing some heartbreaking news about a family in our community. Sometimes, when I go to prayer over a matter, I like to have my journal handy, and often something will come to me in "story-form"... such it was with the following....

Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; And to You the vow shall be performed. O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come.
-Psalm 65:1-2


Elsie pushed open the door to her father’s room and proceeded to him as he held open his arms in welcome. Mr. Dinsmore was glad to see his little girl, but he did notice a marked difference in her from her usual cheerful mood. There was the absence of the usual bounce and lightness in her step as she came to him and was drawn onto his knee.
She quietly lay her head against his chest and her greeting was subdued and quiet.

"What ails my darling this morning, that she should come to me so quietly and subdued?"
He felt her sigh deeply and snuggle in a bit closer to his protective embrace. It was a moment though before she spoke.

“Oh Papa, ...why doesn’t everyone love and follow Jesus? She asked with a troubled heaviness in her young voice. I am so sorry for the trouble that people find themselves in and I wonder if they truly don’t know that if they would only listen to and obey God’s commands they might escape the awful heartache that sin causes...” Her voice trailed off and Mr. Dinsmore silently prayed for wisdom as to how to comfort and answer his little daughter. He drew her close, folding her to his heart, and with his lips pressed against her soft curls, he spoke in a low voice full of feeling,

“For that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard.” (2 Peter 2:8)

Elsie said nothing in reply but he felt her little body tremble slightly and he felt a warm wetness upon his neck as she pressed her face against him. He knew she was weeping for the sin of humanity and all of the suffering it brought upon itself.

"This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it." –Isaiah 30:15.

He sat there quietly, holding his precious girl and thinking... “but you would have none of it..” Even after the Children of Israel had sinned against Him, God had given them a roadmap to remedy their pitiful situation, but they would have none of it. Horace shook his head slightly in silent wonder. How great God’s mercy! But how powerful sometimes was sin’s awful grasp! He shuddered to think of the deceitfulness of sin and they way it had of blinding people to the truth. Elsie felt her Papa tremble and looked up inquisitively into his troubled face. He smiled at her, not wanting to frighten her and took a deep breath. Then spoke quietly, “Darling, let us kneel together right now and give thanks to our wonderful Heavenly Father for His unspeakable mercy and love... How thankful I am to be walking in His way, now at last, and to have been granted the tremendous privilege of sharing this journey with my own darling daughter, –We will ask Him to draw all men unto Him that the scales might be removed from their eyes and they might see what great mercy is available to them in the richness of His unbounded grace and forgiveness.” They slipped to the carpeted floor and knelt side by side, father and daughter, in the presence of the One to whom all flesh will come , and poured out their hearts as one to the Hearer of all prayers, the Giver of All Comfort... †