Matthew 7:7-12

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

How does God see His children?

Think about how you see your own.  Good parents love and nurture their children from the very first cry.  Our oldest, Arik, was born after I spent almost two weeks in the hospital with premature labor.  When he was born I felt a depth of emotion unique to everything else up to that point.  I looked into those little eyes, and cuddled that little one, whose premature little body could fit on a washcloth.  I have watched that handsome boy grown into a man, almost twenty now.  All along the way there have been moments when I’m connecting with him through conversation and I get lost in those beautiful blue eyes.  I tell him they are blue like the sea.  My mama heart skips a little beat thinking of the years looking into those eyes, and being filled up with so much love that I feel that I could burst.

Sounds so dramatic, right?

That’s how parental love is.  It is dramatic and it is fierce and it is so profound that you can hardly put it into words.  You just want to stare at your child because you are so taken aback with the depth of love you have in your heart for them.

God put it there.

That beautiful love is a reflection of our Heavenly Father’s heart for us.  But that’s just it.  It’s only a reflection.  The love He has for us is infinitely deeper and more profound because it originated from Him.  And, as you see in the verses above, our love for our own children is tainted by evil.  God’s love is pure and even so much more profound.

You are God’s child.  He is staring into your eyes as you talk to Him.  He thinks they are beautiful.  He remembers when you were small and how you’ve grown into adulthood.  He was there all along, your Father.

He wants us all to know this love of His.  To know it!  Not just to say “God loves me” but for us to know it!

The amazing thing is that the unique parental love you can have for one child can envelope many more, biological and not.  The love I have for Arik, I also have when I look into my girls’ dark brown lovely eyes.

“For God so loved the world…”  Parental love envelopes.

Someone once said that the eyes are the window to the soul…. Whether we want Him to or not, God sees down into our souls?  Why not surrender to that love and soak it up?  We need it.

I love you Arik, Nicole and Victoria.  I’m blessed to be your mom.

– Susie Stewart

Photo taken by Susie Stewart