[Adonai Jehovah] will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. Isaiah 40:11
I love it when I am granted the privilege of secretly observing a “perfect moment”—one of those little snapshots of heaven when you see God in an everyday circumstance of life. This happened to me on the airplane from Ft. Lauderdale to Denver yesterday.
There was a young couple traveling with two kids. One was a little boy of about 4, the other a little girl about a year old. During the 5-hour flight (should have been 4 hours but we had to touch down in Colorado Springs for weather conditions in Denver), the little girl started crying inconsolably while sitting in her mother’s lap. She was crying, calling out for her daddy.
After watching the whole situation play out, it was not hard to see why. Her large-framed father got up from his seat across the aisle where he was sitting with the little boy, and took the little girl into his arms. She nestled so peacefully and so contentedly in his arms, laying her head on his broad shoulders, while he gently rocked her back and forth and whispered gently into her ear. While he held her, she did not utter a peep nor did I even see her squirm or look around. She was fully in the moment of being encircled and loved in her daddy’s arms.
I was so overcome with the tenderness of this father-daughter interaction, that all I could do was marvel at “the story” of it. I am fully convinced that the parent relationship is exclusively provided to teach the world about our Heavenly Father’s love and relationship with His children. Watching that gentle, loving young man was in reality watching a man, created in the image of God, act out the part of God in this great cosmic play in which we’re living.
That child, leaning so peacefully into her daddy—completely safe, and lost in a moment of perfect comfort—was my teacher for the day. And I was not about to miss the lesson! I have written about this before, but I still feel that there is a certain magic that God has placed between the hearts of children and their fathers. It is not to set us up for the disappointment left behind by so many of our fallen earthly fathers, but to drive us to find the love that won’t fail—the love of our perfect Heavenly Father.
So many days in the rat race, sadness, and fear battles of life, I still feel like that little girl. I want my Daddy. I want to be picked up and held by Him. I want to feel safe, sheltered, attended to, and soothed. I want to feel His heart beat in His strong chest, smell His scent, and hear Him whisper reassuringly into my ear. What about you? Do you long for the tender touch of a loving Daddy?
The wonderful thing is that you and I can have that any time. He will never turn us down when we call for Him to pick us up and hold us close to His heart! Today, I encourage you to visualize yourself as that peaceful child being held and comforted by your true Daddy.