You love me, Baba?

My three year old grandson Joshua is such a sweetheart! He has a killer smile and the cutest dimples! He has also become quite the chatterbox. My grandkids call me Baba, an old Ukrainian thing. I'm sure just like every other grandmother out there... I'm always telling my grandkids how much I love them. One day I went over to my son's to babysit and when I walked through the door Joshua came running over and asked, with that cute little voice, "you love me Baba?" You can imagine how that melted my heart!

I shared that story with those I work with at the Colony of Mercy. Colony Intern Joe came to me a few days later and shared with me how my little story impacted his heart. He pondered that we are God's children and He loves us with an unfailing, all-encompassing, boundless love. With such a sacrificial love that He even gave His only Son to die for even such a one like me. And He tells us freely in His Word how much He loves us. Yet we doubt.

Jeremiah 31:3
"The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying¨ I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness."

Romans 5:8
"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

1 John 3:1
"How great is the love the Father lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him."

Joe shared that he began think to about and say "you love me Abba?" Isn't it amazing how we have Scripture after Scripture that tells of our Abba Father's love for us, yet we still doubt... we still question. Yes He loves us when we live for Him, when we serve Him, and when we praise Him. But He still loves us when we walk away from Him and do our "own thing" for a time. Yes, even when we break His heart, He still loves us. He loves us even though He knows every skeleton we have in our closet. And as redeemed children of the King, He chooses to remember them no more....and continues to love us.

Psalm 102:11-12
"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who hear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

Jeremiah 31:34
"...For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

This agape love is more than my brain can comprehend. So we come to God and say "you love me Abba?"

And Father God answers "Yes, Yes, YES! I love you my precious child."

Mary Ann

MaryAnn and John Kiernan have been married for 37 years, have 2 grown/married sons and are the proud grandparents of three grandsons and one granddaughter! She serves at America's Keswick as a Biblical Counselor and also as Intake Coordinator for the Colony of Mercy. Her life verse is Romans 8:28.

DIGGING DEEPER
James 1:21
Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.