Just saw another one of those videos featuring photos from the ‘50s and a nostalgic song, and realized anew that there were two things that made my early childhood magical:
Of course, as we begin to grow up and strive for independence, that all changes. We start looking elsewhere for people to depend on, and for people to love us. Some of us turn our backs completely on the wonders of our childhoods, inexplicably rejecting even the idea of unconditional love and the joy of being able to depend on others.
But over the last two decades, I’ve learned that we can restore both states, as well as the lovely feelings that accompany them. In fact, they can be better than ever if we make a point of seeking the infallible and eternal.
How? Through a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God the Son – a relationship achieved by repenting of what He has said is sin, by trusting in Him to have paid our sin debt in full on the cross, and thereby being born again to become His child forevermore.
When we do this, we can rely completely on Him in this life, through good times and bad. After all, He is omniscient, omnipotent, and all merciful, and is in sovereign control of what happens to us every moment in our lives. Our circumstances may not always seem desirable to us at the moment, but Romans 8:28 tells us that He makes all things work together to the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. So we can count on Him to make everything turn out perfectly.
What’s more, the Bible tells us that God is love. He loves us not because of anything lovable in us, but because it is His very nature. His love is, in Greek, agape. It is sacrificial, permanent, unconditional. This, then, is love we’ve never before known; as wonderful as it may have been, our parents’ love for us was only a hint of what is available from Love Himself.
Unconditional love and complete dependence upon our Creator: that’s what God’s children can look forward to experiencing endlessly in heaven. In the meantime, we can enjoy this wonderful state even now, in this fallen world amidst endless distractions. All it takes is remembering a magical childhood, and resting in the knowledge that it was only a shadow of the real thing – that the best is, indeed, yet to come.
- Being loved unconditionally, and
- Being utterly and happily dependent upon my parents for everything
Of course, as we begin to grow up and strive for independence, that all changes. We start looking elsewhere for people to depend on, and for people to love us. Some of us turn our backs completely on the wonders of our childhoods, inexplicably rejecting even the idea of unconditional love and the joy of being able to depend on others.
But over the last two decades, I’ve learned that we can restore both states, as well as the lovely feelings that accompany them. In fact, they can be better than ever if we make a point of seeking the infallible and eternal.
How? Through a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God the Son – a relationship achieved by repenting of what He has said is sin, by trusting in Him to have paid our sin debt in full on the cross, and thereby being born again to become His child forevermore.
When we do this, we can rely completely on Him in this life, through good times and bad. After all, He is omniscient, omnipotent, and all merciful, and is in sovereign control of what happens to us every moment in our lives. Our circumstances may not always seem desirable to us at the moment, but Romans 8:28 tells us that He makes all things work together to the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. So we can count on Him to make everything turn out perfectly.
What’s more, the Bible tells us that God is love. He loves us not because of anything lovable in us, but because it is His very nature. His love is, in Greek, agape. It is sacrificial, permanent, unconditional. This, then, is love we’ve never before known; as wonderful as it may have been, our parents’ love for us was only a hint of what is available from Love Himself.
Unconditional love and complete dependence upon our Creator: that’s what God’s children can look forward to experiencing endlessly in heaven. In the meantime, we can enjoy this wonderful state even now, in this fallen world amidst endless distractions. All it takes is remembering a magical childhood, and resting in the knowledge that it was only a shadow of the real thing – that the best is, indeed, yet to come.
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