Last Sunday morning at church Pam stood her two-year-old grandson just below the stage so he could watch her while she sang with our praise group. Christian stood quietly but clapping his hands in time to the music. Suddenly he spotted the stairs to the stage and realized he could stand right next to Meme. As he started climbing the stairs, a man well-known to Christian come up to get him but our pastor intervened and said to let him go ahead. All the congregation was watching the scene as it played out anyway, so it might as well be acknowledged. That’s when grandma took him up on the stage and put him in her chair, where he sat quietly and contented until the praise and worship part of our service ended.

As this scene occurred, I sat down and wrote in my notebook of how Christian’s actions illustrate a child of God wanting the comfort of their Father’s love. Human love may let us down at times, but His never will. More than this, it speaks of how others can try to interfere with that closeness. Now the man who reached out to Christian only had the best intentions, but in our daily lives, we do find people who try to keep us from God. Sometimes our foe isn’t a person but busyness or disinterest on our part. Perhaps we allow work or our family’s sporting events or something else distract us, so we don’t spend quality time with God.

But the child of God who understands just how dearly God loves them naturally wants to get closer to their Daddy-God, just like Christian wanted to get closer to Meme, even though he could see her about three feet away. He wanted the comfort of her love. Being next to her and holding her hand proved much more satisfactory.

How much do we want to be closer to our Father? Do we make the effort to draw nearer? Not that we must work harder for the Kingdom but that we must reach out and give quality time and seek God. He assures us that when we seek Him and draw close to Him, that we’ll surely gain the comfort of His love. Several verses refer to this: Deuteronomy 4:29; Proverbs 8:17; Jeremiah 29:13; Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:9 and Acts 27:7.

Take some extra time this week to seek out and to find more of the comfort of your Father’s love. He’s yearning and waiting for you.