To Encourage You

Psalm 127:3 “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.”

Sometimes things are so much more incredible than we realize at first glance.  My youngest son’s name is Adam. Adam has Down syndrome. Anyone that knows Adam knows that he is a walking, talking bundle of love and joy.  Every so often, maybe when we’re having breakfast, Adam will walk over to me, when it’s just he and I, lay his head on my shoulder and give me a big hug.  He will linger there for a little while, and I can just sense the love he is sending toward me in those moments.  What a gift he is. What a treasure he is to our family. I can’t even put it into words.  But then the other day, something dawned on me that made these times even more precious to me.  It is the fact that Adam came to our family as a gift from God, as did every one of our other children. The Scriptures above tell us that.  And so, it dawned on me that when Adam gives me that gentle, intimate hug, it is wonderful moment in and of itself, but more than that, that gift, like any wonderful gift, is not just coming to me horizontally from my son but vertically as well, “coming down from the Father of Lights” (James 1:17).

What an awesome thing this is. Every good and perfect gift that enriches and blesses our lives first and foremost is coming to us from God.  Time after time He sends us signs of His love and often those signs come to us through the words and actions of other people.  Do you think about that?  Do you have eyes to see it?  Does your heart swell with gratitude towards this loving God Who showers us with His love every day?  How true is this verse from John’s writings, the apostle who time after time calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved”: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are” (1 John 3:1). 

What great love the Father has lavished on us, for He not only gave us our children as such wonderful gifts, but He also gave us the greatest most wonderful gift of all: His very own only begotten Son.  And then to think that while we were yet sinners, Jesus poured out his love on us at the cross (Romans 5:8). 

How wonderful is a love like that?!