“Wow, that’s incredible.”
These were the words out of three year old Benjamin’s mouth. This was in response to him lightly kissing his almost six week old little brother atop his head. Now, lightly may be a bit of an over-statement for any three year old child loving on a newborn baby, but compared to the vicious smacks he was laying on the little one prior to me scolding him, I was impressed. The way I saw it, Benjamin was trying to tell me just how incredible his new little brother is.

At such a young age, we give and receive love. I have a niece Hadley who at the age of one and a half responds to the words “love, love” by giving huge hugs and grabbing your cheeks for a tongue-in-mouth kind of kiss. She seeks the love and attention from Lauren and Bobby (her parents, my sister and brother-in-law) and is very dependent on their love. All of us need that love, no matter what age we are.

We are created in the image and likeness of God. And God is love. He created us because he loves us. He died on the cross because he loves us. He is with us everyday because he loves us. We are supposed to follow in his compassionate footsteps and show everyone around us the love of Christ, the same love that we undeservingly receive.

Later that evening after chasing little Benjamin around the kitchen, we sat down at the table. I looked at him and asked in all seriousness why he said that his little brother was incredible. He looked at me with that, why-would-you-ask-such-a-silly-question face and responded, “I love him so much and don’t want anything to happen to him… so now let’s go play!!!” It didn’t exactly answer my question, but it reiterated what I was thinking. It is a huge blessing to have the ability to love.

“We know how much God loves us because we have felt his love and because we believe him when he tells us that he loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him.” – 1 John 4:16

… now that is pretty incredible.