Yesterday, in preparation for our family Christmas pudding making (which, is of course, strenuous work - not!) The Most Adorable Granddaughters#1, #2 and #3 were busy ensuring there would be sustenance for all.
As they did so, the house was filled with Christmas carols. If you know me, this is quite a concession as in the past I would not "allow" Christmas carols before December 1st. And yet, as I type this, Christmas carols are playing on my Spotify playlist.
I'm getting old.
Perhaps because I've had more time to think (due to one injured ankle), or perhaps because I've been busy working on a wedding quilt and considering the symbols stitched therein, or perhaps because it's been twenty years this month since we lost my dear father-in-law, or perhaps because of a recent devotion on love, I've been thinking on the love of God.
My father-in-law's last words to DH and I before he left for an overseas holiday (to return shortly thereafter in the cargo hold of a plane) were, "Love to all." I tear up now, twenty years later, writing those words. He was a loving father to me and his many children. I have always known that I was blessed in my parents-in-law.
There have been many loving - yet imperfect - fathers. And as I reflect on this, and also our own experience as parents, I know that there were many times that we told our sons, "No", and they couldn't (or wouldn't) see the wisdom in our response. Now that several of them are fathers themselves, I wonder if they now have a fresh understanding that sometimes in the best interests of our children we do not give them all of which they ask.
This morning I reflected on the past year as I sat to write our annual Christmas letter. And what a year it has been! We have seen many blessings (two weddings and two beautiful new daughters) and much answered prayer (a visa for DIL#5, a home for Son#4 and DIL#4, safety and protection) but there have also been difficulties and still this virus rages on, ravaging where it will and we do not yet know what the end will be.
And yet, as I think again of my father-in-law, and other fathers that I have known (including my own sons who are great dads!) my eyes turn to our Heavenly Father, who loves us better and more perfectly than we can imagine.
1 John 3:1 says, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God", and later in the chapter in verse 16 we read, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us", and in the following chapter in verse 10, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (NKJV).
He loved us. First. Perfectly. When we were still dead in our sins. He loved us.
And He sent His Son. For us. Because He loved us. Because we needed a Saviour. Because He loved us.
And as we remember that this Christmas, and as we look at the world around us, we can rest in the Father's love and trust Him even when we don't understand. Even when we tremble. Even when we think He has forgotten us or has not heard our prayers.
Because this is true: He loves us!
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