Parental love

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord.  "And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts." 
                                   Isaiah 55: 8-9

How Janet loved those verses.  And how she pondered those verses.  How many times she wondered why God was doing certain things, why her life was going in certain directions, why were there wars, and also what would happen to her and what would happen to her family in the days and years to come.  Those verses helped her to realize that God is beyond her limited knowledge and beyond her ability to control most of what is in this world.  God is all powerful, in control, omnipotent, omniscient and too amazing for her to begin to understand!

For one thing she thought about their four children and how much she and Dick loved them.  She thought back over the years and fondly recalled those precious memories of infancy, toddler years, then school age, then college, then weddings and grandchildren.  How fast those busy years flew by but she was so thankful she and Dick had spent time and energy loving and caring for their precious off-spring.

Now she thought fondly about their four adult children and how much they loved and cared for their own children (our twelve grandchildren). How beautiful to see! And the realization hit her.  We love our children more than we love our parents! It is a downward progression!  Sure she loved her parents, respected them, spent time with them as they grew older, cared for them and now remember them with absolute endearment.  But...there was this deep passionate love for her own children that surpassed even the love she had for her parents.  And now she saw that reality passed down into her children's love for their children.

In fact, she knew that her adult children preferred to spend time with their children rather than with her. And that is OK because the love is constantly transmitting downward to the next generation.  And she realized that is the way God designed it.  Love never stops...it just continues passing on.

God is the same.  It made her realize that God the Father, the Creator of us all loves us with a deep passionate love because we are His children.  Look what He did for us?  He loved us so deeply, He sent Himself, through His Son, to shed His blood and die for us so we could be given the gift of eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."   John 3:16

Janet knew, if necessary, she would literally die for her own children so she began to understand the great love God has for all of His children.  Yes, the whole world...everyone whoever lived, because we are all created by our loving Father, are given the gift of spending eternity with our Father IF we believe that indeed Jesus died for us.  Very simple...and very awesome!

She had never totally understood the depths of God's love, but when taken in the context of a mother's or father's love for our own children, she began to understand.

That parental love never ceases, even when the children are older and graying!  Never a day goes by that she does not pray for each of them....that the Lord will protect them, keep them in His care, send His angels to surround them and continue to lead them in His path of love and wisdom.

She praised God that He has given her the gift of living in these senior years to see how God's ways are far beyond anything she could imagine!