Zephaniah 3:17

"The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."--Zephaniah 3:17

I was thinking tonight about how much I have learned about the nature and character of God since I became a mom. So many times since I have had children, the Lord has spoken a soft word to me about His love during the day-to-day stuff of being a parent. Tonight, I was lying in bed with Eoin, as I was putting him down to sleep, and I was holding him in my arms and singing songs to him, as we do every single night, when the Lord reminded me of this scripture.

I started thinking about singing, and what it means. I was struck by the fact that every mom sings to her babies. It's one of the most intimate and tender things that we can do. It comforts my children to hear my voice; it helps them to relax and drift off to sleep, knowing that everything is OK, and Momma is right here with them. Sometimes I sing songs to them to teach them things that I want them to know. Sometimes our songs are full of laughter and dancing. Other times, I sing songs that I have made up just for them. Still other times, the singing is just more of a contented hum...an outward expression of tenderness and love between mother and child.

How touching to think that, as much as I love my children, the Lord loves me even more. He sings over me! He takes delight in me! Imagine that. The way that I delight in my own children--the way I speak of them with bursting pride--He feels even more towards me. It's not because of anything I've done to earn it. There's nothing I could ever do to change it. He just loves me because I'm his child.

It's a thought so simple, yet so profound.

Thank you, Lord, for showing me just how much you love me. Thank you for your plan for setting us in families and making us into parents, so that we can understand you just a little more.