Beautiful Expression...

Eight years ago today my little Caleb was born! Hard to believe it's been that long ago. Nothing has been the same ever since. This little guy has taught me what it's like to love from God's point of view. That's right, I said from God's point of view.

What I mean is that Caleb brings nothing to the table - he has no job, pays nor room or board, for many years he couldn't even go to the bathroom by himself, clean himself, he makes messes of everything, eats my food, breaks our things, spills his glass and the list could go on and on - yet in an instant and without hesitation I would lay my life down for him. I love this little guy! I would fight off a 200lbs chimp on Xanax and alcohol to try to save his life. (Please Caleb don't give any chimps Xanax or alcohol... in fact stay away from 200lbs chimps!) But, I think you get the picture... love from God's perspective.

I remember when he was only a few weeks old, one night I was laying on our bed holding him. We were watching television and I kept making "daddy" noises at him, playing with him and just staring at him amazed at it all. All of a sudden I had this surreal moment that this is exactly how God loves me! Think of it. God goes "dada" over me... funny noises and all, right? Probably. But, I remember being so overwhelmed at the notion that God loves me simply because I'm His and created in His image.

The family is actually a perfect expression of our relationship with God. The love holds no conditional pre-agreement. It just is. Fathers would gladly trade the heart in their chests if it would save their children's lives. Dad's protect daughters at all costs... dads fight their fights. Sound familiar? Children trust and cling to parents for safety and provision. Parents provide correction and teach discipline. See the expressions of the relationship?

Husbands and wives take the expression even further. God created humanity in a garden... naked... and no one was ashamed. Only in marriage is this rightly able to be restored. In the shared naked intimacy we see a bit of the expression of intimacy God wants with us. He wants to see us naked, exposed without hiding anything from Him nor wanting to. The image of two becoming one is an expression of our souls being lost in Christ and becoming one in Him, with Him. What a picture He paints right before our eyes and one that we are daily confronted with to some degree or another.

Brothers and sisters are an expression of loyal love that is supposed to exist in the Spirit between us and Christ, and us and each other.

Of course, we can look at these expressions of family and see all the human perversions that the world has polluted this beautiful picture with. But in the family's purposed existence, we see a perfect mirror image of how we could exist in Him, how we should exist in Him.

An eight year old taught, no teaches, me this...