being a baby

I've been spending time with a baby this week.  I absolutely love it...

Meet Sammy... My first and only nephew.  I love this little guy.  Sammy and my sister Shannon will fly home to Arkansas early tomorrow morning, so I got to take care of Sammy and put him to sleep tonight so that my sister could get a good night's sleep.  I loved it.

Getting this baby to sleep took hours.  I gave him his bottle, rocked him, sang to him, told him about Jesus, and he just laid there and waved his chubby little arms around - and SMILED at me.  I would put his binky in his mouth and he would smile at me... and his binky would fall out.  Round and round we went.  So many smiles... it was beautiful.  I cooed at him and told him that I loved his smile and his pretty eyes - but would he please try to close them and go to sleep?  I put him in his chair and rocked him some more... and then he SLEPT.  And he is STILL SLEEPING.  I feel like I did a wonderful thing tonight. =)

In between all of the rocking and smiling and singing, I think Sammy and Jesus and me had a moment together.  I looked at Sammy and suddenly, I saw myself through Jesus' eyes.  And I began to wonder...

Are we like babies to God?  Does He think of me as His baby?
The care that I put in to the past few hours with Sammy - does God care for me like that?  So personally, so intimately, so joyfully?
Does He delight in me that way that I delight in Sammy?  Is my smile HUGE to Him?  Would He be happy to sit with me for hours, just to be with me?  Do I really mean THAT much to Him?  Wow...
Maybe He wants to sing to me and tell me stories... messages from Him that only I can know.  How beautiful... how magnificent.

I remember my precious little nephew Sammy and I know in my soul that I must be even more precious to Him than Sammy is to me and my family.  Oh the depth of relationship that must be available to us with this God.  I have struggled to really know Him as a Father, but I so long to go deeper with Him in that relationship.

May I learn to be a child.  Maybe Sammy will continue to teach me about that...  =) May I know the depths of what it means to be a child of this God.  What a treasure that is.