Yesterday I had the joy and privilege of caring for my granddaughter–I watch her every Thursday.  She is 19 months old and to me, there is nothing more precious than to have her reach up, hold my hand and walk with me through the garden.  She loves to discover ripe strawberries (the joy of ever-bearing strawberries), which leave her with sticky red fingers and checks and elicits a bright-eyed smile and a long low “ummmmmm”.  She harbors no fear of a prickly cucumber but holds it in her little hands like it’s the most precious gift in the world.  Yesterday was her first experience with a newly pulled baby carrot.  Griping its long green stem tightly, she held it up to take a bite, wrinkled her nose and pulled it away, trying to figure out what was tickling her.  Not knowing what to do with the roots she decided to go at it from another direction and tried to eat it like an apple, but it was too tiny and it just flopped over so she moved on to the long stems and leaves and began to smell and admire them–showing them to Papa and I.  Later in the day she went on an adventure under the apple trees with Papa.  She loves apples like her daddy did when he was a baby, so she picked one off of the tree that was not ripe.  Papa told her it wasn’t good to eat yet so innocently she tried to attach it back to the tree where she got it.

There is so much to learn in her new big world–like once and apples picked you can’t return it.  She trusts us so completely.  Sometimes just holding my hand isn’t enough, sometimes she needs to be held, and sometimes being held isn’t enough, she needs to cuddle.  There is nothing like her cuddles.  (It reminds me of my own children’s cuddles so many years ago.)  While she cuddles in to me as close as she can, legs wrapped tight around me and arms snuggled in between our bodies with a little smile of contentment and joy on her face, I am carried away to the idea of how God must feel when we let loose of everything and allow our “eternal child” to be picked up and held–cuddled–by him.

Life’s and adventure in our Father’s House.

Just as the day I spent with little Cora was a reality, our life with God is a reality.  I loved the way Oswald Chambers put it this morning.  Actually, it sends goosebumps to think of myself as an “eternal” little child in my Father’s House allowing Him to hold my hand, teach me, care for me and guide me all the way into eternity.

Our Lord’s childhood was not immaturity waiting to grow into manhood–His childhood is an eternal fact.  Am I a holy, innocent child of God as a result of my identification with my Lord and Savior?  Do I look at my life as being in my Father’s house?  Is the Son of God living in His Fathers’ house within me? . . .The life of your Lord is to become your vital, simple life, and the way He worked and lived among people while here on earth must be the way He works and lives in you.

This can become my life reality–my eternal fact–here and now if I’d just allow myself to be like Cora . . .