I've been having this feeling like I should write about Lily. So here I am...
It seems that the way I love Lily is a metaphor for the way God loves me. When I actually contemplate, cogitate, and truly THINK about that, however, my brain kind of tilts on its axis just a bit. If truth be told, it makes me want to run away! But I won't. I'll just sit here and think about it, and write what I think.
I love to just sit and observe Lily. She's absolutely fascinating to watch, especially when I'm in the bathroom. She always follows me in when I go there, and she loves to bring me wads of paper to throw so she can retrieve them for me to throw again, and again, and again...
I get the feeling when she brings me the paper wads that she's bringing me little gifts, because she's very selective in choosing which ones to bring me. And sometimes she brings me a long, multicolored shoelace that she wants me to wad up and throw for her.
I think the thing that feels like a metaphor for God's love is that it fills my heart with such delight to watch her, to just observe her and be around her. I love to study her, to think about her behavior and how pretty she is. I could think about her all day long and not think about anyone or anything else. I could do nothing else all day long but thank God for giving her to me, because I feel so grateful to Him for her. I'm constantly aware of how awesome a treasure she is to me, and it occurs to me that God might wish that we found as much delight in Him as she seems to find in me.
I say that because she constantly seeks to be near me, something that I absolutely love. She wants to sleep on me at night, and take naps at my side during the day when I'm at home. She greets me at the door when I return home and follows me around the house no matter where I am. When I get up in the morning she helps me get dressed and clean out her litterbox, and by "help", just think of how a two-year-old would help. She brings me her toys, which are always wads of paper, and wants me to play with them with her. She never does any of this alone, but always with me. Always with me, never without me. And it fills my heart with delight and joy.
It seems to me that God would cherish such a relationship with His children, where they would want to spend all their time with Him, would want to have Him close when they sleep, would want to bring the things that delight them to show Him, as children do with their parents ("Look at my new toy, Daddy..."). It seems to me that that's why Jesus gave His life, so that we could have just such a personal, intimate relationship with God. Obviously it involves much more than that, but when you boil it all down, that's where it's at: Jesus Christ went to the cross, a sinless man, to bear the sins of all humanity, so that, once He was resurrected, all humanity would have a connection to God, if they chose to receive it.
That God could love me that much...
Such a thought is too wonderful for me to contemplate!!
