She lay there waiting with all the impatience you would expect of a four year old. She was totally unaware of what motivated her daddy to reach over and give her a big ol’ crusher hug with big ol’ daddy-sized tears in his eyes. She was incapable of knowing how much she was loved. But she did love her father and wanted to be with him. For him, that was more than enough!

    She had dressed herself. She prepared for any and all of the activities the day might offer. She wore those big round toe, pink tennis shoes preschoolers wear when their feet are still almost square. She had put on her favorite pair of red shorts, her favorite orange shirt, and lavender socks. She had put purple ribbons in her pigtails because they were the easy ones to find. Around her waist, she wore a cowboy gun and holster her grandmother had given her for Christmas. As she lay there waiting for daddy to come play, she had a soccer ball under one arm with a baseball glove and ball in her left hand, while she had her baby doll cradle in her right arm.

    She was totally unaware her clothes didn’t match. She just wore her comfortable and favorite things. She brought with her the toys she was interested in today. She could care less if they represented different and even conflicting agendas. She was who she was. No pretense. And she wanted to share it all with her father.

    As she lay there, her smile shone with an unspoiled innocence. The ceiling fan above her gently blew the wisps of hair the ponytails couldn’t corral. As her daddy drunk in every inch of this gift of precious joy, his heart nearly burst it was so full of love and awe.

    What a precious, perfect, innocent gift! To have something and someone that special love you, well, it transcends what words can say.

    To know how we feel about our own children should leave us even full of awe for our Heavenly Father, our Abba Father. If we let it, this window into our own hearts can help us understand how special we are to the Artist who painted the sunsets, and the Craftsman who hung the universe. And all he asks is that we bring our conflicting agendas to him and spend time with him, so his love can transform us.

“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!” (1 John 3:1)

HEARTLIGHT(sm) Magazine is a ministry of loving Christians and the Westover Hills church of Christ.
HEARTLIGHT and the flared heart design are service marks of Heartlight, Inc.
Copyright © 1997, Heartlight, Inc., 8332 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX 78759.
Edited by Phil Ware and Paul Lee.
Copyright © 1997, Heartlight, Inc., 8332 Mesa Drive, Austin, TX 78759.
May be reprinted and reused for non-commercial purposes only if copyright credits are appropriately displayed.