When one-year old granddaughter, Violet, sees me on her computer screen. she is full of grins and giggles. She blows kisses, hugs the screen, and talks to me in baby jabbers. However, when I appeared up close and personal in her home recently, she turned sober and suspicious. When I showed up at the breakfast table the following morning, she stared at me with something very close to a frown.

And, it continued that way all weekend. She eventually warmed up to the little cousins I brought along. But I remained that lady who belongs inside the computer. Violet finally allowed me to hold her on Sunday morning, since her parents were on worship team and I was obviously the designated adult in our row. She even snuggled down and got comfy. But, she never smiled.

Today, we chatted on the computer again. Violet exploded into smiles and tried to smear her oatmeally fingers on the screen in an effort to touch my face. She jabbered. She waved. She blew kisses.

I know this stage will pass. Someday Violet will be happier to see me in real life than in living color. But today she made me think. How many of my virtual friends would be thrilled if I showed up in their real life today? What would they do if I came to share face time as an experience, not a technology? And, how would I react if the whole passel of them showed up at my front door?

Violet may be on to something…