You are Deeply Loved
I have been stressing for the past week or two about what to write for this next Peaks Post and trying to listen for something profound or significant that I can reflect on. I kept asking, but I just kept sensing God saying, “You are deeply loved. That’s enough for today.” This is something I hear relatively often, and tend to want to move past it on to more “important” or “significant” things.
This morning I woke up early and was reflecting on the simplicity of what it means to be “deeply loved.” I heard the pitter patter of little footsteps when our kids are usually still asleep so I decided to check to see who was awake. After a minute or two, I peeked into the bathroom, where the light was on and the door shut, to see my 6 year old son, Josiah, making faces at himself in the mirror. He didn’t notice me grinning and just watching him, and I was content to just observe. Although the water was running for several minutes, and he eventually washed his hands (with about 7 extra pumps of soap), he never noticed me watching him. Finally, as he finished up and walked toward the door, he saw me just smiling and was made aware of his dad’s presence at which point he gave a sheepish smile, asking how long I had been standing there watching him.
I was enamored with that little boy and for the entire 5 minute interaction, I just loved watching him live his life. It didn’t matter what he did, or didn’t do, how much water or soap he wasted, I just enjoyed seeing him, even if he didn’t even realize the love and affection I had for my precious little son.
After a time of snuggling with him and telling him how much he’s “deeply loved,” I had a sweet new picture of how God sees us as his little children. We are going to get it wrong a lot, make mistakes, waste time, talents and resources (or soap and water), and regularly fall short of who we are truly created to be. Often, we won’t even pay attention to our Good Father and just go about living our lives. But that doesn’t change the fact that God is watching us with wonder, amazement, and love, just enjoying the show and seeing how we are going to live life and explore this great big world that he created. After all, he created each of us in our unique identity that is different from every other human on the planet. Our awareness of his presence and love changes us when we are tuned into it, but I don’t believe it changes HIS deep love and affection toward us as his beloved children.
If you have a chance to just observe a child in all their wonder, I’d highly encourage you to do so. And if not, I hope my simple experience paints a picture of how enamored and deeply loved YOU are to your Good Father, who is sitting by all the time and smiling as he watches YOU.
Matt