He hasn’t taken his eyes off you. He’s looking at you even now. It’s not a surface stare; he’s seeing deep into the core of your being. Whether you like the thought of what he’s viewing or not, it doesn’t faze him. The ugliness, the dross, the yukky bits that you think outweigh the beauty.
Don’t squirm. He’s the one person who sees you in your entirety and can bear it. Nothing turns his stomach, because he loves you. Yes, it saddens him when you hurt his feelings by ignoring him, but he’s not ignoring you.
You’ve forgotten some parts of your childhood, either owing to natural causes, age or deliberation. Most likely, all three.
But he was there. In the good times and bad. In the trauma and with the laughter and celebrations. In the disappointments and fears, fun times and tears.
The day when you became a zygote, he knew you intimately. Every cell was carefully put together, alongside your basic personality and he loved you. Yes, he loved you from the very start and despite how you’ve been since, he loves you still.
His compassion for you is not like that of mankind. It is not conditional on your love for him, the good things you do or how you’ve turned out to be.
No matter who ignores you, you are worth listening to. No matter who thinks you’re boring, you are interesting. No matter who finds you irritating, you are accepted. No matter who dislikes you, you are cherished. No matter who’s given up on you, you are constantly on his mind.
His intense focus on you is as if you were the only human he ever created.
I hope your childhood was a good one. Millions cannot look back on those tender days with joy. Whatever your memories, know this one thing: The One who put your body together knows about every single second of your life.
Whether you’re a child or 106, we are all regarded by him as precious. He wants to be your father, but you must come as you are. Don’t wait until you have perfected certain things about yourself, because you will never get there.
Come to him as a little child would run to its daddy, bleeding, after it touched something it knew it was forbidden to touch.
He’s big enough to help you put things right.
Isn’t it wonderful that we don’t have to present him with our intellect and talents? Children have food stains on their chest, but we still hug them. (Well, I don’t if it’s not my child – who wants to nuzzle a soggy bib? But you get what I mean don’t you?) They wee on the floor like puppies, but we still love them. (Again, let’s just focus on our own children.) They crawl across the floor towards us, dragging a book that they want us to read and explain. We pick them up, not giving thought to the torn pages and teeth marks on the edges. We don’t care that they are having a bowel movement while they sit happily on our laps. Hey, you do realise that I’m referring to babies, not teenagers? I’m not sure if I clarified that earlier.
So, God wants us to come to him with a childlike heart. Like my sweet Sarah on the next page, he wants us to look up to him with complete trust. He wants us to be uninhibited with him like a toddler streaking on the beach, running excitedly towards the sea.
If you wish to have your sins forgiven so you will escape going to Hell when you die, God has made it easy for you because he wants you to be in Heaven with him. Our sins have separated us from a holy God who originally created us to be perfect but knew we would mess up. Getting right with God is called, ‘being saved’ and the process of getting saved is called salvation. Christians use those terms a lot.
The Bible says,
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
Here’s a simple prayer that covers everything you need in order to be saved from your sins. We were all created to be a team, so I am delighted to share with you a prayer that the singer Ce Ce Winans used in her YouTube song, “I Have a Savior”.
“Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you in the name of your son, Jesus. I believe that he died on the cross for my sins. And I believe on the third day, you raised him from the grave. I confess I’m a sinner, but I believe you’re my Saviour. Forgive me of my sins. I invite you into my heart. Be the Lord of my life for the rest of my life. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so I would be empowered to live a life that’s pleasing to you. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.”
It’s wonderful that God wants us to have a relationship with us and that he beckons us to approach him like a child. It’s great, it’s fantastic, because we already know…
…God loves children!
