The Enyarts

My prayer, as I had been anticipating Chase’s arrival, was that being a father would give me new and fresh insight into my relationship with God. That somehow, by being a father, I could more fully comprehend God’s unconditional love for me. As I held my son in my arms, smelled his sweet baby breath, I knew that there was absolutely nothing he could ever do that would change my love for him. My love for him was so incredible; this was 2½ weeks ago, when I was holding my 10-hour-old son! I stood there in the hospital room praying to God, thanking him for Chase, and for answering my prayer – that I was beginning to better understand God’s love for me.

If this was how I felt, after being a father for 10 hours, how much more perfectly and strongly, does God feel this about me, about us?

Psalm 139:13
13 You alone created my inner being.
You knitted me together inside my mother.
14 I will give thanks to you
because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made.
Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
when I was being skillfully woven in an underground workshop.
16 Your eyes saw me when I was only a fetus.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book
before one of them had taken place.
17 How precious are your thoughts concerning me, O God!
How vast in number are they!
18 If I try to count them,
there would be more of them than there are grains of sand.
When I wake up, I am still with you.

Have you ever thought about how long has God loved you?

I know that a memory that I will take with me until the day that I die, vivid and clear, is the serenity, calmness, love and compassion I felt at 10 PM on April 29th, 2006 holding my son – smelling his breath, watching him breathe. With that in mind, think for a few minutes about the breath of God. In Genesis 2:7 it tells us that the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. How powerful is the breath of God? Isaiah 33:11 says that God’s breath is a consuming fire. Acts 17:25 says God himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. Our God is the reason that we have breath.

Think about Jesus for a minute. The Bible tells us that Jesus was with God in the beginning. In John it says that through him (Jesus) all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Do you ever think about the breath of Jesus? Mark 15:37 reads, With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. Luke 23:46 further describes, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. Can you even imagine God here? He is watching his son breath his last breathe. The powerful breath that had breathed life into existence – now breathed its last here, to once again breath life into existence.

How vivid and clear is this memory for God? Is it one of serenity, calmness, love and compassion like mine was on April 29th?

Have you ever thought about how much God loves you? Enough to watch his first born son breath his last breathe. It is true; I better understand God’s love for me, for us. Remember the breath.