“Papa, do you love me?”
These words jumped into my heart like a deer leaping over a fence. They were the words off of a children’s book cover in a book store I saw about a young African boy pondering the love of his own father towards him. Oddly enough, it was the very same question I had been directing at my own Heavenly Father.
It had been a while since I had felt His tender touch….That one prayer I had been praying for years hadn’t been answered yet…I couldn’t see beyond the conflict in one of my relationships. Sometimes when I can’t see, hear, or feel God’s presence, I can’t help but cry out like the little boy in the book…
“PAPA, DO YOU REALLY LOVE ME??
Because it sure as heck doesn’t seem like it…look like it…feel like it right now!”
But every time I am tempted to throw in the towel, give up and walk in my own direction, without fail, Papa’s gentle whisper swoops in and says,
“Yes my child, I love you so very much and I am with you always.”
I love the Apostle Paul’s way of expressing the inseparable love of God:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:38-39
If you’re like me today, you’re desperately wanting to know God is there. If you’re honestly looking upward and crying out, “Papa, do you love me?” Take heed and hear this: God’s love is not based on feeling (though it sometimes it can be felt) but on the cross. As Paul says, the love of God is in Christ. He’s it. Feel it or not, God demonstrated His love through the life, death and resurrection of His son. Nothing in this world can separate us from it. What good news.
How I need to hear that reminder from time to time! Papa loves me. And He loves you too.
Listen to ‘How He Loves Us’ for some extra encouragement and be blessed! (Lyrics below)…
He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, And I realize just how beautiful You are, And how great Your affections are for me. And oh, how He loves us oh Oh how He loves us, How He loves us all He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, And I realize just how beautiful You are, And how great Your affections are for me. And oh, how He loves us oh, Oh how He loves us, How He loves us all He loves us, Oh how He loves us, Oh how He loves us, Oh how He loves. And we are His portion and He is our prize, Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes, If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking. And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss, And my heart turns violently inside of my chest, I don’t have time to maintain these regrets, When I think about, the way… That He loves us, Oh how He loves us, Oh how He loves us, Oh how He loves. Yeah, He loves us, Oh how He loves us, Oh how He loves us, Oh how He loves. Yeah, He loves us, Oh how He loves us, Oh how He loves us, Oh how He loves.