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We weren’t the only people who took advantage of warmer weather and headed to Storyland in New Orleans. Several other families watched their little ones laugh, scream and run.

I was with my daughter Monique, her husband Frank, and four of my granddaughters, Adeline, Olivia, Charlie, and Caroline. It wasn’t a terrible ratio – three adults for four children.

Then Frank, sidetracked by a sudden craving for crawfish, found Monique to tell her there was one sack left at the seafood store and they had to act fast.  Monique answered fast, “Where are the two children you’re supposed to be watching?”

The children were in eyesight, happily playing. Frank secured the sack of crawfish, then asked if we could boil them at my house. All ended well. So far, so good.

As we were trying to leave the playground, five-year-old Charlie ran up to Monique crying, “Didn’t you hear me call your name? I kept saying, ‘Mom!’”

“Charlie, there are lots of kids here screaming for their mom.”

“But I’m your child, you should recognize my voice.” Charlie repeated this over and over until she finally stopped crying and showed Monique her latest accomplishment.

Charlie proudly climbed Jack and Jill’s Hill by avoiding the staircase and handrail and scaling the outside of the little hill. Granted, it wasn’t high and didn’t seem dangerous, but still. No one else was doing it, and maybe that was the challenge.

This morning I’m resting in the knowledge that God always hears when we call to Him. He is never distracted and recognizes our voice every time we call to Him.

“I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath,” Psalm 116:1.

Ronny Michel can be reached at rmichel@rtconline.com.