A vivid picture of God the Father

If any of you know or have spent time with our little Ryan, you will understand where I got this vivid image of our God. You see, Ryan is a fairly new walker and he falls all the time. On top of only walking for 9 months, he has serious balance issues and seizures. So his head gets pretty banged up. When he falls, his forehead usually slams to the ground. While he puts his hands out, it doesn't always stop the head from smacking the ground. He usually has several lumps on his head. I can make jokes about it and say that it's his horns coming through (afterall he is three...) But the truth is, it just tears me up.

So today Ryan has had at least 5 good smacks (and most of them are out in public, so I have witnesses that I'm not causing it!) My defenses are down anyway, so these bonks on the head have really bothered me. Just a few minutes ago, Ryan fell and it knocked open a scab on the side of his head. He's had that spot for over a month now and every few days he opens the scab. Sometimes when Ryan falls he thinks its funny and belly laughs - but this is usually when he is into mischief. But just now, Ryan is tired, so the fall really hurt him; he did that cry where nothing comes out for a few seconds. I, of course, ran to him and scooped him up and snuggled him.

I'm not writing all this just to defend the bumps on the head. It was when I was holding Ryan tightly, that I had this image of God the Father doing the same thing with me. After a few sobs, Ryan squirmed to get loose and was back to his terrorizing, like nothing happened. Right now I'm battling the sin of awful eating habits. Every time I fall into temptation, I realize and I get another "bump on the head" and I can picture God's heart being broken because I sinned again and I'm in pain. But I also see God snuggling me close and wanting nothing more than to take the pain away. So I go to Him and when I feel better, I squirm away and wander off and eventually fall again. How much better off would I be if I let God hold me all the time. While I know this isn't possible, it does bring to mind the fact that I can go to God more than when I'm hurt. Just like Ryan - he comes to me for the good times too - I need to go to God often

This was simply on my heart to share and I hope you can see the image of God the Father too.
Kristin