Daddy hears. . .

I often feel that my children teach me more about God than any preacher, teacher, or theologian ever could. They are my tiny walking examples of myself, a child of God. And, as a parent I am allowed to feel to some degree what my Father feels. I get to walk in His shoes, if you will. . . In a very small way, I get to feel how much He loves His children, to know the lengths that He would go to for them, to understand that kind of sacrificial love as best I can as a human being. The story that follows is just another way that God has used an everyday occurence to teach me something about Himself.

James Christofer (21 months) is sick. Awful. He has a sore throat and ulcers in his little mouth and on his throat. He can't even take a sip of water or a bite of bread without crying out in pain. My heart breaks. . . The only thing that has been able to make him smile over the past few days is a post by Renovating my Heart. Calissa did a post that was a series of 3 mini movies. The first is a baby panda bear sneezing. This is JCT's favorite. Over and over he says, "I wanna see the bear again. Bear again." So, we sit down and watch that silly baby panda sneeze and scare his mama over and over and over and again. Thanks for making my little boy smile, Calissa.

I digress. . . So, last night JCT wakes up (he is in a pack and play in our closet at the rent house). He cries and cries. So, my sweet, lovely, wonderful husband gets out of bed to go hold him for a minute. Immediately the crying stops. I hear Erik singing sweetly over him. Then, Erik lays him down. . . silence. . . he closes the closet door. . .crying begins again. . . So, he comes back to bed and sits down. I roll over making eye contact with him. We just look at eachother and listen. He continues to cry softly. But, then he does it. . . In the sweetest little voice you could ever imagine, he says, "My Daddy, my Daddy, come my Daddy." And, over and over again he repeats it with intermitent wimpers and cries. "Come, my Daddy, my Daddy, come." And, I smile because I know my husband. He is a softy when it comes to his boys. I even giggled a bit because I knew he couldn't resist the call. But, before Erik got up, he looked at me and very profoundly said, "You know what is amazing? That is what God hears when we cry out to Him. This is how He feels when He hears us cry out to Him." My expression turned thoughtful and tears began to fill my eyes as I pondered his words.

Yes, God does love us. His love is real, it hurts, it feels, He is not above that, He is that. He is love, and love hurts for the ones it loves. No one knows that better than a parent. He longs to come near us, to sing over us, to comfort and hold us. Isn't that beautiful and wonderful. Warms me to my toes.

What a wonderful reminder that when we cry out to God in our helpless state, in our dark night He hears us. And, not only does He hear our cry, but to the very core of His heart, He feels our cry. It penetrates. Our cry does not bounce off the ceiling as it sometimes feels. No, it penetrates the heart of a loving God, and He is moved. Thank You, Lord.

And, as you well know, Erik got out of bed, scooped our little man up, and then layed back down in our bed with JCT on His chest. And, I couldn't help staring at them. The light from the window shone down on them. There was little JCT resting peacefully on His Daddy's chest, rising and falling with each of His Daddy's breaths. And, something in me was moved as I watched them laying there. So, much love was displayed in that few minutes, and yet it is a mere shadow of the Real thing. Amazing Love.