Day Two - I Want You....

Have you ever loved someone so much it hurts? Like they are residing in your spirit? Almost like you are carrying them around with you in your heart and mind….at all times. Yeah, talk about magic. Sounds kinda familiar - given today. Immanuel. He is with us. Carrying us around in his heart and in his mind……and having the desire for us to do the same. Gift Four: Love.

Two things you guys probably grow weary of hearing about are my nieces and nephew and Africa. Tough ; ) I remember last year when Emma was around three. Three – that wonderful age when they interchange random words in preciously incorrect places, their Rs become Ws and sometimes their Ys become Ls. Instead of “I love you” it was “I yove you.” Actually, she said that sparingly. I think she thought if she said she loved anyone it meant that she didn’t love her mommy and daddy. Like she had to choose : ) So she would rarely say it back. Actually she, in her Haley/Bare boldness, would respond with “I don’t yike you and I don’t yuve you.” I would always smile and come back with, “That’s okay, sweetie, I love you enough for the both of us!” Again....I think that saying is not so unfamiliar to God either. But she said something else that I thought was The Best. When she missed me, she wouldn’t say “I Miss You”. She would call my phone at different times and leave me a message that said: “I Want You, Aunt B.” That’s all. Really meaning the same thing. I miss you….I want you. Just Bolder. That’s my girl!

“I want you”. Picture someone saying that to you for a moment. “I want you”. It holds a powerful meaning. I think everyone needs someone to think they are the greatest thing ever. Sometimes that can be on earth and sometimes it can be somewhere else…..It’s a humbling thought for me to think of the Creator of the Universe wanting a connection with me – with us – so much that he would rock His own world to come into ours in order to make that possible.

Speaking of thinking someone is the greatest things ever, right this second a sweet little five year old has just come up and snuggled underneath my arm. I play this game with her…the Guess What game. “Guess what, Julia?” “What?” “Guess What?” “What?” “Guess What?” “What?!” “I love you”. But She’s caught on in her old URL_REMOVED all I have to say is “Guess What?” and she smiles to say “You love me.”

I don’t think the apple has fallen far from The Tree….I can just hear Him during this season. Admist all of the lights, gifts, comings and goings, rushing, complaining, laughing, crying, wrapping, unwrapping, driving, flying, eating, drinking, being merry. He is whispering…..Guess What, My Child?

I love you.

Here is wishing you a Christmas Eve filled with a different kind of Love……

His, b