In his book, “What Makes a Man” Bill McCartney writes, “God is not merely like a father; He is a father.” “Long ago”, Paul writes in Ephesians 1, “Before there was time, before there was creation, before there was a single word written in the story which is life. Before all humanity was even a gleam in our Father’s eye. GOD MADE A CHOICE.

…God chose us to be His very own, through what Christ would do for us; He decided then to make us holy in His eyes. Without a single fault we stand before Him covered in His love. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And He did this because He wanted to. (Ephesians 1:3-5 TLB)

He wanted to. He didn’t have to. It’s not even “Let’s make a deal. You shape up and I’ll let you in.”  He wanted to.  Jon Ortberg writes about a night when he experienced God’s want-to love. He woke up in the middle of the night.  His wife Nancy was sleeping beside him and suddenly instead of feeling groggy, he was overwhelmed by the most intense sense of love. A kaleidoscope of images replayed in his mind, one scene after another…the afternoon they met, their first private joke, secret nicknames, hidden traditions, the way she smiled at him as she came down the wedding aisle.  He thought about what life would be like without her.  How empty it would be…how so much of him was wrapped up in her.  For the longest time, he just watched her. He said it was one of the most tender moments he had ever known.

But then, lying there, popped up on one elbow…a scripture came to mind. Psalm 121:3  “He who keeps you will not slumber.”   And with the scripture came the thought.  While I lie in bed sleeping, God is watching me.  Then he had the sense that God was speaking to him saying,

I love you like that. While you lay sleeping, no one can see you, but I watch you. My heart is full of love for you. What your heart is feeling right now as you watch your wife, what a parent feels watching a child, is a little picture for you, a gift, so you can know — every night when you go to sleep — that this is my heart for you. I want you to reflect on this at night before you close your eyes. I’m watching you, and I’m full of love.

He is our Papa and that is his heart.

• – If God has an office, your picture is hanging in it.
• – If God has a bulletin board, your homework is hanging on it.
• – He hasn’t missed a soccer game, a band concert, a softball practice, or an opening night.
• – In the middle of the night, he’s hanging out at the door of your bedroom, because he just likes watching you sleep.
• – When you need to be picked up from a bad fall, his hand is reaching…even before you go down.

So what do you do with that?