Can I just tell you...

Can I just tell you how much I love my children?  I know I am biased.  I know every parent thinks this way.  I think I have the most wonderful kids in the world.  Elijah, who will be 5 in August, just came in my bedroom and saluted me.  While trying to hold back a laugh (he is supposed to be in bed), I instructed him to get back to bed and get to sleep.  He saluted me again and added a 'yes ma'am!'.  He turned and marched out of the room, giggling.  Hannah, my 2-year-old, steals my heart.  I cannot help but smile when I think of her decked out in her pink high heel shoes, bracelets, headband, and princess 'dress up' outfits on (yes, outfits.  She wears two or three at a time).  Those two little people are so important to me.  I cannot imagine my life without them.

Isn't it the most amazing thing in the world to think that this is how the God of the universe thinks of us?  Seriously?!  We steal God's heart?  He, the creator of everything, thinks we are so important to Him?  So important, in fact, that He would do anything to save us.  I do not like to think of bad things happening to my children.  I get emotional thinking of them being hurt.  Can you grasp the impact of what God did?  He sacrificed His Son!  Is it possible in the moment Jesus was born, and people were joyful, God was hurting?  He knew the sacrifice that had to be made.  He knew His Son would be beaten, tortured, made fun of, and ultimately separated from Him on the cross.  He made this sacrifice for such undeserving people.  I can't imagine showing my kids over and over how much I love them- telling them how much they mean to me without any response.  It would break my heart to tell Elijah or Hannah that I loved them and for them to simply ignore me.  It breaks my heart to think this is what we do to God.  God longs to talk to us.  God longs for us to tell Him we love Him.  God longs to be our Saviour- the One we lean on, trust in, LOVE. 

Elijah is old enough to tell me he loves me.  It is amazing to hear him say that to me.  But, being only 4-years-old, I can see that he doesn't fully grasp the meaning.  When I tell him I love him, I am saying I would do anything for him- I would lay down my life for him- I will always be there for him.  I feel like it's the same with God.  His love for us is so much deeper than we know.  We cannot grasp the concept of His unending love for us.  God has given me a wonderful example of His love for me through my children.  I have become incredibly grateful for the sacrifice that was made for me, my children, their children and so on- for generations to come.  Every time I hear my kids say they love me, I am hearing God tell me how much He loves me.  I want to be a good steward of that love.  I am going to work on seeing God's love in my everyday life and tell Him, in my childlike understanding, how much I love Him!