Oh how He loves us!

It was the end of another hectic week and Vincent was glad to be heading home for the weekend. He had just arrived at the departure lounge for his flight, when he heard someone singing at the top of their lungs, “I’m going to see daddy. I’m going to see daddy”. He turned towards the sound and noticed a little girl, six or seven years old, with pig-tails in her hair, singing and smiling. How cute, he thought. Half an hour later when his flight started boarding, she was still singing and he was starting to get irritated. Just when he settled into his seat and buckled up, who did he spy sitting next to him? Little miss pig-tails, still singing the same song. Thank God it was only a domestic flight.

Each time the stewardess passed by, miss pig-tails grabbed a coke and some cookies; and in-between the snacking, the singing continued. Just as they prepared for landing, there was some turbulence in the air. This must have triggered some internal turbulence in miss pig-tails because before he knew what was happening, there was puke everywhere. He had never smelled anything so foul. How could something so gross come out from someone so cute?

Once the plane landed, he rushed out of the cabin as quickly as he could, almost bumping into a smartly dressed man who was waiting in the terminal. The way the man was peering excitedly, he suspected that this might be “daddy”. He decided to wait and watch the reunion between miss pig-tails and her dad. Not too long afterwards, she emerged from the plane, still covered in puke. As she ran towards her dad, he scooped her up in a massive hug, planting a kiss on her puke-covered cheek.

Vincent choked back a tear as he walked away. He had never seen anything so beautiful.

Just like the dad in the story, God doesn’t expect us to clean up our acts before we approach Him; we couldn’t, even if we tried. In fact, Isaiah 64: 6 reminds us that at best, our self-improvement efforts are filthy and worthless to Him. However, if we come to Him in faith and put our trust in Him, He will clean us up and make us whole again. Romans 5: 8 tells us that God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And again, we see in Ephesians 2: 4-5 that because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace we have been saved. Thank God for His grace!