βThe days are long, but the years are short,β wrote Gretchen Rubin inΒ The Happiness Project.Β
Never a truer wordΒ has been said ofΒ parenting young children.
Some days theΒ noise and craziness of corrallingΒ two intense little boys was soΒ challenging I’d wantΒ to scream.
But there were moments my heart simply welled up with joy.
Like the day I stared down atΒ my youngest child as he trotted slowly and thoughtfullyΒ up the stairs in the shopping centre…Β
He may as wellΒ have been surrounded byΒ a stunning light.
Just soΒ beautiful.
But there was something about this moment that wasΒ also heartbreaking.
I realised that, each dayΒ in so many ways, he isΒ less young.
More wise perhaps – but in a way, less ‘innocent’.
More aware of this world, less dependent.
On me.
I wantedΒ this little angelΒ to love me forever.
I was also seized by the thought of him one day rejecting me.
How painful that would be… because I love him so very much.
I wonder if that’s how God feels about us sometimes…
Yes, he knows all things andΒ created all things – including us,Β aware weΒ might reject him.Β
But I believe his heart breaks when thisΒ happens.
When we return to him however, knowing, and finally believing, that his son’s death on the crossΒ and coming to life again really does make us whiter than snow…
Wow.
What joy in this realisation.
This reunion.
I amΒ far from being likeΒ God.
ButΒ if the loveΒ I feel for my beautiful, complex son is this intense… How much more must Jesus love and yearn for me?
And you?
In aΒ relationship whereΒ we embrace, rather than reject.
Where I follow his lead, rather than go my own way.
Where I take his hand and say Lord – I really believe these words from John 8:36:Β Β “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
And in Isaiah 1:18: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”
May my love forΒ this redemptiveΒ Father shine like the glistening snow, pointing the way back to the true source ofΒ light, love, and everlasting peace.Β
May thisΒ beautiful, wonderfulΒ reconciliation define my lifeΒ each and every one ofΒ my days.
Because it truly does change everything.


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