Something occurred to me tonight as I singing "Jesus Loves the Little Children" to Layla. I was gently rubbing her back and singing this song and I realized, looking down at my unimpressive hand, that that was Jesus' hand. That the Lord uses our hands as His own in the lives of those we touch, literally and figuratively. And more specifically, the Lord uses a parent's hand to love the little children. Those of us who have children know that the relationship, and the feelings associated, really cannot be explained, or even adequately expressed. It just feels bigger than me. I am just a human, with plenty of faults (trust me), but I would do anything for this child I'm holding. And I am happy to deny my own desires or comforts to accommodate her safety, her security, her well-being. It seems to me that God put this overwhelming love in parents so that we could get a small glimpse of how He feels about each of us.
And as I pondered this, I couldn't help but feel that loving our children, as unselfishly and purely as we can, makes the Father so happy. That He cannot wait for the day that He can be the one to gently rub our backs, or pick us up, or kiss our cheeks. In a perfect world, no child would feel unloved, or be without that gentleness. My hand rubbing Layla's back is part of His perfect plan to express love to His children. And one day, He will do the same.
