When Tara was pregnant with Skyler, I got more than my share of advice for what to do and expect as a rookie dad. I appreciated everyone’s efforts — some, I would have to admit, more than others. One dad made some particularly strong recommendations regarding what one should never say to his pregnant wife:

“The baby is due the 25th! That’s the date of the Super Bowl for cryin’ out loud!”

“Did you eat all the ice cream again?”

“Have your ankles always looked that fat?”

“Look how fast Julie has recovered and gotten her body back after having that baby.”

Or my personal favorite: “You’re not going to pull that trigger.”

    Some of the most frequent advice I received from other fathers was to talk to my son while he was in the womb. Father after father relayed to me the marvel of their children recognizing their voice just moments after they entered the world. With this in mind I often carried on a conversation with, what amounted to, my wife’s belly. When I would speak to him I would usually refer to him as my “little buddy” (no, it wasn’t in memory of the Skipper and his relationship with Gilligan, but thanks for asking). “Little buddy, what’s goin’ on in there?” “Little buddy, when you gonna come out and see us?”

    At first, I felt somewhat silly and, I suppose, even embarrassed. There was a part of me that was doing it just so I could satisfy all those fathers badgering me with their advice. But what happened the day my “little buddy” made his debut into our world suddenly helped me see that these one-sided conversations were more than worth the silly feelings of carrying on a conversation with my wife’s belly.

    Just moments after Skyler was born the nurse placed him on a warmer in the corner of the labor and delivery room. I had never been around a baby this “new.” He had a cone-shaped head and the usual residue from the trip through and out of my wife’s body. I must confess that Skyler looked a little worse-for-the-wear. It appeared that he had been on a fairly rough trip. The only pictures of newborns that I had ever seen were ones where the babies were clean, fresh and swaddled, as if they had come into the world in such a way.

    As the nurses cleaned him up and took his vital signs I made my way slowly over to him. He looked a bit lethargic, lying there with his eyes shut while the nurses did their thing. The words flew out of my mouth before I knew it. “Hey, little buddy!” The moment I said those words he turned his head in my direction and his eyes shot open. I thought my heart was going fly up my esophagus and out of my mouth. It was only a few seconds later that a thought straight from the Spirit of God and attested to in Scripture shot across my mind. “This must be how the Father feels when His children hear His voice and turn in His direction!”

    Through this initial experience of rookie fatherhood I was granted a glimpse of the heart that God has for His children. He longs for us to look in His direction. In those first months with Skyler, I would come home from the office and immediately get down on my hands and knees, crawling over to him in the living room. He’d be flat on his back or on his side playing with a simple toy. Most of the time he was completely oblivious to my efforts to get his attention. All I wanted him to do was look me in the eye and register a look of love, affection or acceptance. It was as though I was living for my son to look in my direction. It got to the point that I didn’t even notice whether other adults were in the room when I came home. I wasn’t really concerned about how foolish or silly I appeared in their eyes. After kissing Tara, I was immediately flat on my belly trying to get my boy’s attention.

He longs for you to look in His direction.

    This is how God feels about you. As much as you long to be unconditionally loved and accepted by others and Him, do you know that He longs to be unconditionally loved and accepted by you? He longs for you to look in His direction. Scripture makes it clear that He is One who will “crawl on all-fours” and enter into our world at “eye-level” in order to get our attention.

    Consider what Paul says about God to the people of Athens: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:24-27).

    Most people think that Christianity is all about us seeking God when the truth is that it’s more about God seeking us. He works through events in our lives in order to put Himself in position for us to seek Him, reach out for Him, and find Him. He is in white-hot, zealous, passionate pursuit of a relationship with each one of us.

    What makes this so incredible is that God doesn’t need us. Paul made this clear when he said that God wasn’t “served by human hands as if he needed anything.” Indeed, God is secure and well established. He can live without us. But this truth serves to highlight His love for us all the more. God pursues us because He wants a relationship with us and not because He “needs” us. Just as I could live without Skyler so He can live without us, and just as I don’t want to live without Skyler so God doesn’t want to live without us.

    Our Father God so longs for us to look in His direction that He’s been shameless in His efforts to get our attention. He sent His Son to die on a cross to explain His love for us in a language we could understand. John put it this way in 1 John 3:1,16: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! .. .This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” Scripture is a love story about God going to great ends to get the attention of His people. And that love story continues today.

    Have you seen Him lately trying to get your attention? Have you heard Him? He longs for you to look in His direction. Isn’t it time you did?

© 2001, Chris Seidman. Excerpted from Little Buddy, New Leaf Books, 2001. Used by permission.
Title: "Little Buddy"
Author: Chris Seidman
Publication Date: June 9, 2001

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