Love of THE Father

I'm not sure if you can fully understand the concept of sacrifice and love (the 2 central themes in the Gospel) until you have your own kids. Here is Avery. He is my pride and joy, my first born, my only son. He makes me laugh, he makes me well up with overwhelming pride. He makes me cry. I love him so much it makes me hurt - literally hurt. I am so excited to see what kind of man he turns into, and I believe he will be a crazy man of God - one that could change nations for Him. He is compassionate, loving, brave, funny, intelligent, but probably best of all, he loves his Daddy, and wants to do everything with him. That makes me feel good. I am loved, and Avery has such a heart, that he wants me to know it. He tells me he loves me every time I see him. He gives his Daddy hugs and kisses all the time, they are specially to me. He is my little Avery-man.

I was watching him the other day work in a sticker book. This one had a "tractor" theme. I could watch him play for hours. His little mind was racing, pulling out one sticker and putting it in a rock yard scene, then back to another sticker, this time an even bigger tractor, his eyes light up and his smile nearly grows from ear to ear. His eyebrows raise, and I know he is thinking "look at this one, it is huge, the biggest tractor I have ever seen!" Avery kept this up, total delight in his sticker book, for what seemed like ages. I kept watching him from across a room, tears began to gather in the corner of my eyes. I pictured Jesus, when he was 4 1/2, playing intently with some sort of toy. God must have looked down on him with a smile on his face, so proud of his little guy.

When you have a child, and you watch him like I watched Avery that night it amplifies Gods love for us. If He could love us so much that he would send His son to this earth to bare the sins of man and be sacrificed in a violent and brutal manner, how much does He love me? How much does He love you? I can't even fathom it. My mind can't even begin to imagine it. Thinking how much I love Avery, so much it hurts, I think if I did grasp the concept of how much God loves me, my head would explode. When you have a son of your own, you begin to understand though. I try to remind myself each day while thinking about Avery - now imagine how much God loves you. This puts my day back into focus, right now, God is looking down on us thinking, "I love you, I am so proud of you, you make me smile, I delight in you."