I have an American Bulldog, at least that’s the breed that he is, and he loves to be loved. Besides coming up to me and wanting to climb up on my lap so I can love him by petting and talking to him, he likes to “play ball”. Now that consists of the two of us going out on the back porch and my tossing a tennis ball in the air so he can catch it. And he’s pretty good too, catching the ball in mid air and most of the time after one bounce. The funniest times are when he takes off running before I toss the ball and it bonks him on the head or on his back! But he loves it just the same. I use one of those “grabbers” that a lot of us “old folks” use to get something up high. You know, it has a “grabber handle” on one end and two rubber pinchers on the other end, but it saves my hand from getting dog slobber all over it. Yuk! I toss the ball five times to my right, two short times directly in front of me, two a little longer tosses towards my left, and then five more tosses to my left, letting the tennis ball bounce at least once on the porch before he catches it. I could probably enter him into one of those dog shows but I’ve never tried him on a frisby. Anyway, it’s his most favorite game and I try to do it two or three times a day. It’s one of the ways that I show him that I love him. Or to put it another way, its one of the ways that he lets me show him that I love him. “Let me show him that I love him”, I say. He brings me the ball!
But do you know what? We need to let God love us a little, if not a lot, each and every day. It’s one of His most favorite things to do. He loves us more than we realize and yet we push Him off with all kinds of activities or avoidances when He just wants to sit with us and let us know how much He loves us. The Psalmist wrote in one of my most favorite psalms, Psalm 121, in verses one and two, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.”
I read the story of an older Christian woman who loved the Lord and spent much of her time serving Him. One day someone asked her, “Mary, what do you do all day?” She replied, “Well, I start my day by getting out my hymn book and I sing a few songs to the Lord. Then I get out my Bible and let the Lord talk to me through His words. When I get tired of reading and I can’t sing anymore, I just sit still and let the Lord love me.”
