Thousands of Kisses

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is sweeter than wine.” (Song of Songs 1:2)

My son is now six months old, and he has the most deliciously chubby cheeks. Even with spring now approaching, he still looks as if he’s been storing nuts for the winter. I love it.

People are constantly telling me that they can’t help but kiss his cheeks– and neither can I. All day long I kiss his chubby face and tell him how much I love him. It’s not something I have to think to do (unload the dishwasher, take out the trash, oh yea– and kiss Baby Boy and tell him you love him.); it’s something I can’t help but do. My love for my son is greater than I could have ever imagined before he arrived, and it only grows stronger by the day.

So I happily kiss his face and tell him I love him hundreds– maybe thousands!– of times each day (that’s what it feels like, anyway…). My son has never done a thing to deserve my love or affection, besides exist; in fact, he demands quite a lot from me. But he is mine, and mother-love is the kind that spills over, just because.

 

Early this morning as I rocked my son back to sleep, I sat amazed, once again, by how very much I love him. Then the Father whispered sweetly into the darkness:

Your love for him is only a hint of My love for you, little one, your affection only a faint shadow of that which I show you every single day. Feel my kisses upon your cheeks. Hear Me say it again and again and again: I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you!

I cannot help it! I do! Simply because you exist and you are Mine.

 

Father-love, as it turns out, is much like mother-love– or perhaps it is the other way around, since everything in the natural has a way of reflecting its supernatural Creator. Just as He mercifully gave us His Son to reveal Himself to the world (John 1:18), our Father reveals glimpses of His love through our own earthly experiences each day. And so we are encouraged to look a little harder for His fingerprints which are upon everything.

 

Today I am listening a little closer for my Father’s “I love yous,” and I am waiting expectantly for the thousands of kisses He will most definitely plant upon my cheeks.

You and I belong to Him, and we are so very loved.