“I Want to Be Close to You,” Ensign, July 1977, 64
I Want to Be Close to You
(From Branches That Run over the Wall, Salt Lake City: The Magazine Printing Co., 1904.)
“I want to be close to you, muzzer!”
Whispered my two-year-old;
As we knelt ’round the family altar,
In the twilight pale and cold.
I heard him with moistened lashes,
For I felt that moment, too,
As my heart reached up to our Father,
“I want to be close to you!”
In mine his small hand nestled,
‘Gainst mine his soft cheek press’d,
His bright head on my shoulder,
Found sweet, confiding rest;
And I felt the Father draw me
Closer, and closer yet;
Resting my tired being,
As I did my baby pet.
If I, in my mortal weakness,
Could not turn my child away,
But would rest him upon my bosom,
E’en while we knelt to pray:
How shall my soul be faithless?
How can I ever fear
That when I call to my Father,
He will be slow to hear?