Imagine a father holding his first newborn in his arms. Once the midwife has placed this tiny, little swaddled gift in his arms, he has such a look of wonder and sheer amazement! You can just audibly hear him softly saying, through misty tears of joy, “Hi. I’m your daddy.” And the tiny one instinctively moves his little head towards his father’s chest, partly drawn by such powerful love and warmth exuding out from the father’s heart, and also, just as instinctively, he is looking for his first bit of nourishment at the breast.
Reluctantly, the radiant young father places the child ever so gently into his mother’s waiting arms. Oh, what a beautiful and tender moment the three of them share! What profound love the young couple feel in these heavenly moments for each other! Through all this time, having hoped and prayed, nurtured and coddled, even singing to the little one while he was yet in the womb. Now the months of waiting and nervous anticipation have given way to a wonderful cascade of happy tears and “I love you” spoken back and forth so deeply.
Now envision that this father is your Heavenly Father and the newborn in His arms is you. Each and every time He looks upon you, do you know the very first thing He sees? When you put your trust in Him, regardless of what you have or have not done in your life up until this point, He sees His Son Jesus.
He holds you so tenderly as He breathes His Spirit of Life into you for the very first time! If only you could see the days and weeks and months that He hovers over you, begetting you from the womb and saying, ‘This one is Mine!’ Yes, even claiming you from the womb of your mother, so enraptured He is with your little soul. So, so little. So frail. So pristine. Pure from the very breath of God!
How He loves to see you go, as one more carrier of His very own heart and soul, with enormous, earthly and eternal potential! How He grieves to see you go, knowing full well just exactly what awaits you in this fallen and sinful world that you’ve been born into.
Your Heavenly Father says to you: “Come. Let us reason: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make you white as snow. I will take the stony heart from within you and replace it with a heart of soft, tender, newborn flesh, filled to overflowing with My own pure love for you” (Isaiah 1:18).
He is Absolute and Complete Hopeful Love. So maybe you can begin to understand His immense love for you, by trying to look at yourself through a different set of lenses, a different set of eyes, a different heart. HIS eyes. HIS heart. And when the enemy of your soul comes with his lies and distortions and false accusations and talks of guilt, remember the long, loving look of your Heavenly Father upon the most precious and priceless treasure of His heart – and that is YOU!
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