RICHARD MAFFEO
Unchanging love

My friends tell me our son Nathan is a typical teenager. That’s why his reaction didn’t surprise me when I walked by his bedroom. There he sat at his computer desk, earphones stuck in his ears, tapping wildly at his keyboard. He barely glanced in my direction before returning his attention to the screen.

I stared at him for a while, and, as I did, a sense of love swept over me. I walked behind his chair, draped my arms over his shoulders and brought my head close to his.

“You know, Nathan, I love you.”

“Uhhhh,” he mumbled, not missing a stroke.

“I think you’re special,” I added.

“Uh-huh.” He stopped typing long enough to move his mouse. His eyes never left the screen.

I squeezed his shoulder one more time, stood and smiled at his usual articulate response.

When I walked out of his room, a thought dropped into my mind. “You know,” I sensed God whisper, “I love you.”

I leaned against the wall, and my thoughts skipped across the past 25 years. How often during those decades has God figuratively draped His arms across my shoulders, drawn close and whispered, “I love you”? I suppose countless numbers of times. And how often have I mumbled in return, “Uhhhh,” while furiously busying myself with some task I considered critically important to humanity? How often did He add, “I think you’re special,” while I, hardly missing a stroke, muttered, “Uh-huh”?

I wonder how, after years of reading God’s message in the Bible, I have failed to understand the depth of His unchangeable and unwavering love.

Despite Nathan’s reaction to my affection, my love for him didn’t diminish so much as a hair’s breadth. I loved him as deeply when I stepped into the hallway as when I had first spotted him at his computer. To an eternally greater degree than a human father’s love toward his son, God’s love toward us is never, ever diminished – even when we’re too busy tapping life’s keyboard to acknowledge Him.

When we think ourselves unlovable, He promises through Jesus Christ that His love never fails. When we struggle with memories of past sins, the bad things that we have done, we have His word, proven when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that His mercy and forgiveness are unwavering. Wherever we are, whatever our need – in the throes of heartache, loneliness or danger – His arms drape over our shoulders, His head leans next to ours, and He whispers, “I love you. You’re special to Me.”