See these two little twirps? I love them with everything that’s in me. I love them so much, it actually pains me. When they’re fast asleep and I go in to peek at them, with their soft skin, and that little peach fuzz still on their cheeks, and their little beating hearts and their sweet hands and those cute toes, I sometimes just cry because of how much I love them. Every bit. 

And golley, how I want to protect them. There’s not a doubt in my mind that at any sign of trouble, I’d scoop them up and run to keep them safe, or I’d lay down my life right then and there just to keep theirs going. I’d suffer anything for them. And if they ever got lost, I’d spend my life searching the world for them. I just love them so deep.

And I think they need that kind of love. We all do. We need someone who fully deep-down knows us to completely, unconditionally, absolutely head-over-heels love us. No matter what. The good the bad and the ugly.

And if we ever get lost, we need someone to relentlessly look for us. To stay awake deep into the night, and call our name and search until they find us and we’re home again, safe and sound. We all achingly need this sort of love. I know I do. And this is what mama’s and daddy’s are good for. To love us like nobody else. All the way to the blazing sun and back.

I’ve got this Daddy in heaven who claims to love me like that. My heavenly Father. And today I was aching for Him, so when the kids took their nap, I sat on the couch and begged for Him to come. I really, really need to be loved.

And then I opened up His Word and this is what He said,

“And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.” (from 1 Peter 2 and 3)

And my Father says, “See, Maggs? See what kind of love I have for you? You know how much you love your kids. You love them with everything you’ve got. And yet I love you (and them) infinitely more than that because my heart is infinitely bigger than yours. And my heart is wholly good.”

I think about the greatest demonstration of God’s love for me. That one verse that mostly everybody I know, knows:

“For God loved the world so much, that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him won’t perish, but will have forever life.” (from John 3:16)

And then I think about how God must have wanted us to know this without a shadow of a doubt, that He loves us. Like, really, really head-over-heels loves us and so not only did He lay down His life, but He wrote it into our very skin.

Have you ever heard about Laminin? It’s this microscopic protein that acts like glue–holding our cells and tissues together. And these cell-adhesion molecules that hold us together...literally, are shaped like this:

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Before God ever sent Jesus to lay down His life on a cross for us, He wrote His love into our very skin.

No wonder I reach out to feel for Him. And I do find Him. The way He comes to hold us like a tender daddy would. The Father who goes looking for all the lost, traveling across the cosmos in relentless pursuit, until He finds us. Then He brings us back Home again. Safe into His heart.