It's been a super great break so far that consists mostly of holding my new, baby niece. It's crazy how you can love someone so much and all she does is lay there. Well, she's opened her eyes a few times, but she mostly sleeps. But the other morning when I was holding her I was just looking at her and it started me thinking about things.
Here's this little person, little girl, and she doesn't give a care at all what she looks like, what she's wearing or anything like that. She's part asian and part white, but it doesn't matter to her. She's 7lbs, 18.5 inches long but her size doesn't matter. She's 7 days old, She's a person. All she wants is to be held, to be loved and cared for. What would it look like if we loved and cared for people just because of who they are. We love this new child in our family just because she is, because she exists and she's a precious gift. Because God ordained her to be a part of our family. She hasn't done anything to deserve our love and, in fact, she's pretty much incapable of doing anything, yet we love her. What if we treated all people like that? Loving them for who they are. What if we lived like that, knowing we are loved by God and not so concerned with appearance and what people think and loving other people because God loves us completely.
Having her here has also helped me realize the magnitude of what Jesus came and did for us. We're trying to protect this little baby, washing out hands before holding her, keeping her in a warm room, monitoring the amount of people who come, having nice clean diapers and good cleaning stuff, keeping the dogs and cats away. Jesus didn't have any of that. He was born in a stable, with animals and hay for a bed. This baby can't do anything for herself, she's completely vulnerable and innocent, so was Jesus. It just amazes and overwhelms me the position he put himself in...the extent he went to for us. That Mary was given the responsibility to care for and raise her savior, the Savior of the world! The One who spoke this world into being came to us in obedience to the Father as a tiny, helpless baby. He went through life as we know it and lived perfectly so he could save us because he loves us. He loves us for us, just because we are, because he created us. We are his children and he loves us fully and completely even when we have done nothing to deserve his love, just because we are.
I loved reading this, Andrea. Isn't it amazing to think of the love the Lord has for us? Our love for these little babies isn't even remotely close to His love, and yet we take advantage of it all the time. She is so sweet - congrats on being an Aunt.
ReplyDelete