He whispered, "I Love You"

We show a lot of affection around our household. We tell each other "I love you" every day! I am so blessed when I hear my 3yr old tell her papi, " Ten cuidado, te amo"(be careful, I love you) each morning before he leaves for work or when she surprises me with, "Mommy I love you...I love that you're my mommy!" Wow, these are truly precious moments!

My mom use to tell me, "you'll never know how much I Iove you until you're a mother one day." It's funny how you remember things like this when you're older and how true these words ring today. The other day I caught myself thinking about how much I love my kids and what a precious gift they are to me. I thought about how often I tell them that I love them. I can't even count how many times I tell them per day...just too many! Even though my girls know how much I love them, I too know as my mom did, that they will never truly grasp the depth of my love for them until they are mothers one day.

As I was smothering them with kisses right before bed time, I couldn't help but compare my parenting role with the best parent of all. I thought to myself, Lord as our parent do you ever feel so overcome with so much love for us, that you just feel like bursting?!! Or do you ever find yourself beaming from ear to ear when you see us learning and growing? Do you get so tickled over us that you just want to cry? Do you ever find yourself wondering, especially of those in Christ who profess to know you, if we truly understand how much you love us? Do you hope that we'll have a better grasp when we too become parents?

I know how silly these questions sound...but at times it is so hard to fathom that God squeals in delight over us too! That he gets excited and dances over us, His children! Even though I will never fully undestand the depth of God's love for me until I am at home with Him, I am thankful that being a mother has increased my awareness and given me a deeper understanding of the depth of God's love for me. In the midst of my ramblings, God drew near and whispered... I love you...no sooner did these thoughts leave my head before God gently reminded me of Psalm 139 17-18 that says...

• How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand!
  

As he draws me into deeper waters with Him I am discovering more and more how wide, how long, how high, how deep, is the love of our Lord. As I snuggle and smother my little ones with precious kisses as a way of expressing "I love you", He did the same for me when He gave up His one and only son to die for me. My best attempt at expressing "I love you" to my little ones could never compare to the "I love you" He expressed to me through His son, our precious saviour, Jesus.

Wow!! What a humbling thought! Because I am a mother, I honestly don't know how He did it, but I am so thankful for His love that He lavishes on me!